Help to Spend? The Effects of Relaxing the Down Payment Constraint on the Housing Market and Consumption

13/09/2022

About this event

Belinda Tracey, a senior economist at the Bank of England, will be hosting a talk about her research on the UK mortgage market and household consumption as part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Research Excellence Series 2022.

 

The Talk

This research shows that relaxing borrowing constraints positively affects household consumption in addition to stimulating housing market activity.

The UK Help-to-Buy program was used for identification. This provided a sudden relaxation of the down payment constraint by facilitating home purchases with only a 5% down payment. Belinda Tracey’s research design exploits geographic variation in exposure to Help-to-Buy. Administrative data on mortgages and car sales was used, in combination with household survey data from the Living Food and Costs Survey and employment data from the Business Structure Database.

There will be time for you to present your questions to Belinda in the last 15 minutes of the talk.

 

Date: Tuesday 13 September 2022.

Time: 11:00 - 12:00

Where: Online event

Cost: Free

Registration: Via Eventbrite

 

If you have any questions, please contact: SRS.Engagement.team@ons.gov.uk.

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