Relationships between Young Adults’ Housing Tenure, Elements of Perceived Job Security and Social Capital in Britain

Against the backdrop of the changing trends in tenure in the UK housing system, young adults are faced with different situations that continue to shape their housing consumption and decisions. This paper investigates the relationships between young adults’ housing tenure, social capital, and elements of perceived job security in Britain. Socio-psychological dimension of housing tenure decisions has been receiving attention by housing market analysts and practitioners seeking deeper understandings of UK housing market dynamics, particularly in the wake of changing tastes and preferences of young people concerning housing decisions across major cities of the world. More specifically, very little research has been done to investigate the contributions of social capital formation, for example, neighbourhood or social integration and social relations, and elements of perceived job security, on housing tenure transitions among British young adults. A quantitative approach has been applied to the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) from 2001-2015. We discover that British young adults’ homeownership decisions are increasingly influenced by social capital and elements of perceived job insecurity, depending on their tenure of origin. Although we find minimal evidence of a combination effect from our variables of interest. Nevertheless, it is our view that findings from this study will significantly enhance our understanding of tenure shifts amongst young adults in the UK and provide property developers, local authorities, and central governments the knowledge and information to guide economic policies, urban renewal towards achieving better social cohesion and sustainable communities.