Neighbourhood Effects, Social Capital and Young Adults’ Homeownership Outcomes in the United Kingdom

Many housing researchers and policymakers assume that homeownership remains the tenure of choice for many individuals and their households in the UK and internationally. Housing affordability concerns and access to mortgage finance have taken centre stage in the debate about the declining prospects for young adults to enter homeownership. Yet, some recent studies have questioned how well we understand other factors that combine to shape housing and tenure outcomes for young adults. We specifically ask whether different combinations of neighbourhood effects, homeownership path dependency and social capital influence tenure transitions for young adults. We provide estimates using multi-level mixed-effects logistic regression models using the British Household Panel Survey 2001-15 for Great Britain. We find evidence to support the argument that these specific effects help to shape housing and tenure outcomes for young adults, albeit with socialization within the family appearing to have a stronger effect in comparison to neighbourhood socialization.