Comparing regional patterns of homeownership entry across four British birth cohorts

Abstract

Difficulties accessing homeownership and reduced rates of owner-occupation among recent birth cohorts are a major concern for Global North policymakers. However, surprisingly little is known about how patterns of entry into homeownership have varied spatially across the early lives of recent birth cohorts. Using life course perspectives and survey data, this study examines how regional disparities in homeownership trajectories and transitions have varied across the life courses of four birth cohorts who entered the British housing system after 1990. The results show a nonlinear pattern of postponed homeownership across cohorts which has not varied greatly across regions. London is the most distinctive area and delayed homeownership transitions have long been a feature of the capital’s housing market. Taken together, the findings illustrate the value of more thoroughly examining how place intersects with biographical and historical time in nuanced ways to shape housing careers.

Keywords:

• Great Britain
• homeownership
• housing careers
• life course
• longitudinal analysis
• regions

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Bill Clark for his helpful comments on earlier drafts. Constructive feedback from the editor and from three anonymous reviewers also greatly improved this paper. All remaining errors are our own. Joanna Kuleszo contributed to this paper while working in the UCL Department of Geography.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

All datasets used in this research can be accessed through the UK Data Service: https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk.

Notes

1 The BHPS to Understanding Society transition means that no annual panel data span the 2008-2009 period.

2 Couples are defined as living in the parental home if living with either partners’ parent(s), although this occurs rarely.

3 Cases where people lived in owned dwellings but incomplete information on ownership was provided were removed.

4 This means that, for example, the rate for 19-year-olds in a cohort was calculated as the proportion of at risk 18, 19 and 20-year-olds who transitioned into owner-occupation from t to t + 1.

5 Although the age-graded trajectories are similar, the actual rates do vary from those estimated from the LFS in Figure 2. This is to be expected as inter alia the panel predictions do not take account of exits.

6 Transitions from social renting are very low for all but the 1967-73 cohort.

7 Gender interactions with employment status were examined but discarded as these showed little of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (now part of UK Research and Innovation) under grant ES/S016422/1. Labour Force Survey data are collected by the Office for National Statistics and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Understanding Society is an initiative funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and various Government Departments, with scientific leadership by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, and survey delivery by NatCen Social Research and Kantar Public. All research data used in this study are distributed by the UK Data Service. Neither the data collectors nor the UK Data Service bear any responsibility for the analysis and interpretations presented in this article.