People are moving home in the UK much less than they used to 30 years ago, which has consequences for the healthy function of the housing market, new research suggests. The reduced mobility is largely the result of missing movers, people who have a mortgage on their current home but are not moving up the housing market, according to the study commissioned by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
The analysis from researchers Neil Hudson and Brian Green suggests that missing movers account for about 320,000 of the annual housing transaction shortfall. They point to a number of reasons for the decline, including the fact that there is a greater proportion of owners who own their property outright (ie. not mortgaged), and they tend to be older, settled and hence less likely to move. However, there are still around 140,000 missing moves that can be attributed to a decline in the rates of moving among mortgaged home-owners.