Frequency of residential moves by housing tenure

Moving home matters for health, as instability at an early age can interrupt education and social participation, which can negatively affect people later in life. Moving home in childhood has been associated with lower socio-emotional well-being at ages five and ten. 

This chart shows how the frequency of house moves differs by housing tenure types for a cohort of children studied since 2000. Children growing up in rented homes are much more likely to experience housing instability than children in homes that are both owned with a mortgage and owned outright. 

• Outright owner households with children were the least likely to have moved, with 58.8% having never moved in 15 years, compared with just 13.1% of private rented households.
• Moving home twice is nearly three times more likely for children in private rented homes (31.5%) and around twice as likely for children in social rented homes (20.8%), when compared with children living in homes that are owned outright (11%).
• Only 2.5% of outright owner households with children had moved house three times or more, compared with 23% of private rented households with children, and 10.5% for children in social rented homes.

The association between frequent residential moves and poorer health, including mental health issues and other health conditions, may be due to the factors that make people move, such as economic insecurity, as well as the moving process itself.