Does Homeownership Reduce Crime? A Radical Housing Reform from the UK

Disney, Richard; Gathergood, John; Machin, Stephen; Sandi, Matteo

Abstract

‘Right to Buy’, a large-scale natural experiment whereby incumbent tenants in public housing could buy properties at heavily subsidised prices, increased the United Kingdom homeownership rate by over 10 percentage points between its 1980 introduction and the 1990s. This paper studies the impact of this reform on crime by leveraging exogenous variation in eligibility for the policy. Results show that Right to Buy generated significant property crime reductions. Behavioural changes of incumbent tenants and renovation of public properties were the main drivers of this crime reduction. This is evidence of a novel means by which subsidised homeownership and housing policy can reduce criminality.

Citation

Disney, R., Gathergood, J., Machin, S., & Sandi, M. (2023). Does Homeownership Reduce Crime? A Radical Housing Reform from the UK. Economic Journal, 133(655), 2640–2675. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead040

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 9, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 5, 2023
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 21, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 6, 2025
• Journal: Economic Journal
• Print ISSN: 0013-0133
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-0297
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 133
• Issue: 655
• Pages: 2640–2675
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead040
• Keywords: Crime; Homeownership; Public Housing
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/11466499
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/133/655/2640/7190617