Choosing between owning a home and becoming a parent

In previous eras, people were more likely to become parents after they became homeowners. But a recent study has found that the likelihood of owning your own home and becoming a parent has fallen in recent years, with young people just as likely to become parents while living in private rented accommodation.

The findings of the study question the usual assumption that people will own their own home before becoming parents, and suggest that increased uncertainty around housing may be the cause. As a result of houses becoming more unaffordable over time, homeownership rates, especially among younger people, have plummeted. The number of people living in private rented accommodation into their late twenties has increased. But private rental tenants have had and continue to have very few rights and are subject to upheavals and uncertainty. This may have traditionally put people off starting a family while living in rented accommodation.

Because of this, the desire to own one’s own home remains strong across Britain and is often still seen as a preferred setting for parenthood. But with mortgages being less accessible to those without substantial deposits, homeownership is a privilege for those who are wealthier, have inheritances, have dual incomes, and are confident in their employment (to be able to obtain and pay their mortgage). With this in mind, many of those who do manage to buy a home might then postpone or forego having children because the costs of homeownership compete with the costs of parenthood.

The research team was led by Professor Ann Berrington from the ESRC-funded Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton, with Dr Valentina Tocchioni as lead author, and Professor Daniele Vignoli and Dr Agnese Vitali as co-authors. Dr Tocchioni is currently supported by European Research Council ‘Economic Uncertainty and Fertility in Europe’ project (PI Daniele Vignoli).

They used longitudinal data from 27 years of the British Household Panel Study (BSPS) and its successor the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) to examine women’s rates of first birth between 1991 and 2016 in Britain. The sample consisted of 5,082 women living independently from parents born between 1948 and 1997 and residing in 374 Local Authority districts (LADs) of Britain.

The study’s main findings showed that the likelihood of becoming a mother while in owner-occupied accommodation has declined in recent years to the point that, from 2013, there is a clear change in the relationship between owning a home and becoming a parent: it becomes equally likely that a woman will become a mother while living in private rented accommodation. Up until 2012, the likelihood of conceiving a first child was significantly higher for homeowners compared with private tenants. The findings were the same even when the women’s socio-economic and demographic characteristics including partnership status, education, employment status, income and parental social class were taken into account.

Although the data do not show the underlying reasons, the study team suggests that owning a home may now be in direct competition with the costs of having children. The majority of owner-occupied homes are purchased with a mortgage, and a higher proportion of income is now used to provide a deposit, service the debt, or to repay (at least partly) money loaned for example by parents. Homeownership increasingly requires households to have a dual-income; buying a home encourages women to attach themselves to the labour market. It could also be that homeowners have become a more select group due to the wider economic uncertainties in society, one characterised by an orientation toward career and material aspirations.

Professor Berrington comments: “This disconnection between owning a home and becoming a parent has significant implications for parenthood in general. If it is the case, as we propose, that homeownership is increasingly competing with the costs of having children, then it is likely that those who do manage to buy a home might well postpone or even forego having children. So the families that people may have planned to have will be unfulfilled for many young people now reaching the traditional parenthood ages. Policies need to recognise and address the large regional disparities in housing affordability, for example by improving housing availability and affordability in high cost areas, while encouraging job formation in areas of the country where housing is more affordable.”

She continues: “The private rental housing market in Britain remains un-family friendly, unregulated, and insecure. Housing uncertainty among private renters might arise from the threat of evictions, unregulated increases in rental prices, and the lack of rights around property maintenance and enhancement. What is particularly concerning for the parents of children in a private rental home is that moving house can require moving children from one school to another. With the rise in young people now more likely to be in private rental accommodation when they are of an age to start a family, it is vital that the government implements policies to improve the quality and security of private rented accommodation.”

The research team have published their full findings in Demography ‘The changing association between homeownership and the transition to parenthood’ and a summary in CPC Policy Briefing 63 ‘Homeownership and the transition to parenthood’.

Posted 17/08/2021 10:01