Partnership patterns and homeownership: a cross-country comparison of Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Using detailed micro-level survey data for three advanced European welfare-state economies (Germany, Netherlands and UK), our analyses suggest a fairly common hierarchy to homeownership, according to partnership status, exists. In all three countries, a variety of interrelated factors appear to encourage greater propensities for homeownership amongst co-residential households (married/cohabiting), as compared to single-person households. However, important macro-contextual differences do appear to play a significant role in mediating the magnitude of difference within this hierarchy. For instance, in Germany the importance of marriage as a predictor of homeownership is found to be particularly strong, with married couples having far higher propensities for homeownership, even when compared to non-married cohabiters. In the Netherlands and UK, where an emphasis on traditional family and marriage is less pronounced, and where homeownership is generally more popular and accessible, the differentiation between married/unmarried partners is greatly reduced. Furthermore, we find no evidence to suggest that living-apart-together partners are more/less likely to own their home than singles.

Keywords:

• Homeownership
• partner relationships
• welfare regimes
• second demographic transition
• comparative analysis
• Germany
• Netherlands
• United Kingdom

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Sandra Krapf, Michael Wagner (University of Cologne), Hill Kulu and Julia Mikolai (University of Liverpool) for their helpful comments and insights on an earlier version of this paper. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.

Notes

1 Previously married singles include widowers as well as divorcees, though in our analytical sample the number of widowers is very small, given the 25–40 age range.

2 Once the panel studies mature this may be possible in the future.

3 For the German and UK samples, children are defined as under 16 years of age, for NKPS children can be of any age so long as they live in the household with their parent(s).