Young people and home ownership in Europe

Abstract

The paper investigates home ownership amongst young people in Europe. Studies which compare experiences across European countries on this topic are very scarce. Using European Survey on Income and Living Conditions data, this paper conducts a multilevel analysis in 28 European countries, aiming to provide further insights about young people's home ownership considering both macro and micro factors known to influence levels of home ownership. Based upon an analysis of key literature, the paper focuses on the influence of the housing system, labour market, and welfare state in each country, and on the social class of origin of the individual. The analyses show the relevance of socio-economic family background: young adults from the middle class are more likely to live in homes they own, compared to those from the lower and higher classes. Beyond individual characteristics, social policy has substantial influence on the tenure status of young adults. Most notably, this paper concludes that there is a negative correlation between the welfare generosity of the state and levels of home ownership, supporting the idea of the house as a safe haven and emphasising the importance of the social class of origin, especially in those countries where family is traditionally seen as the social safety net.

Keywords:

• housing inequality
• social inequality
• young people
• home ownership
• welfare state

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We consider here the concept of safe haven for the individual and the family as an investment in social and economic security. It is related to the concept of assed-based welfare (Elsinga, De Decker, Toussaint, & Teller, 2007).

2. The EU-SILC project was already under way in 2003 in seven countries (Belgium, Norway, Greece, Luxembourg, Austria, Denmark, and Ireland). However, it was only in 2004 that the project was officially launched in 15 countries (except Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom) and Estonia, Norway, and Iceland. Every year new countries joined the project. and in 2010, EU-SILC reached its full extension with the 27 Member States (EU-28), plus Norway, Iceland, Turkey, and Switzerland.

3. EU-SILC collects detailed information on housing conditions, throughout common concepts and classifications aimed at maximising comparability of the information produced. For more information about data comparability, see Verma and Betti (2010).

4. Our data allow us to look at the tenure status of the household. We cannot distinguish if the house belongs to the young adult or, if he/she is in a couple, to the partner. We can just see if they are living in an owner-occupied house due to the fact that they are not living with their parents.

5. For more details, see http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home.

6. The correlation matrix is available upon request.

7. For more information about housing inequality in Europe, see Dewilde and De Decker (2014).