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This is a study of tenure choice, housing demand and mobility in the submarkets of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The empirical analysis is based on data on households, type of tenure, housing characteristics and mobility for a sample of Helsinki residents at the end of 1980s. According to our results the probability of owning is affected not only by user costs of alternative tenure forms but also by permanent income and demographic variables. Results from the tenure specific housing demand models indicate that there are non-neutralities in the housing markets. Permanent income elasticities of housing demand are clearly positive in owner-occupied sector and systematically higher than in the rented sector. The demand for owner-occupied housing depends very strongly on the age of the household head. User cost per housing unit affects housing demand negatively in both tenure forms. Effective demand is greater in private housing sector. The results suggest that owner-occupied living is preferred with heavily subsidized households the least likely to move. In the rental sector, where the probability of moving is higher, it is also true that the most heavily subsidized households are the least likely to move. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Loikkanen, Heikki: Housing demand and intra-urban mobility of Finnish housing allowance recipients. SHPR 5: 1988 In this paper we present results of housing demand and intra-urban mobility behaviour of new housing allowance recipients in Finland. The theoretical framework is a search model developed by the present author elsewhere. This model suggests that both the probability of searching and of accepting (randomly) received offers are increasing functions of the discrepancy between desired and current housing consumptions. In our empirical analysis we first estimate desired demand functions from our data with a special technique. Then, we use these functions to obtain predictions of desired demands with and without the allowance. These are compared to actual demands which, unlike the desired ones, are affected by prevailing rent regulation and related availability problems. Finally, we use measures of discrepancy between the desired demand with the allowance and the actual pre-allowance housing demand to explain mobility during the first three years of obtaining the allowance. The actual demand effects of the allowance seem to be small relative to their impact on desired demands, which also are rather small.