The intergenerational transfer of housing advantage: Examining tenure and residential location outcomes

This research considers the intersection between intergenerational support, housing outcomes, and spatially-differentiated housing markets to examine the transmission and reproduction of housing inequality across generations. Specifically, it aims to advance the understanding of the relationship between parental backgrounds and young adults' housing tenure as well as residential location outcomes. Drawing on original survey data collected in Shanghai over 2018 and 2019, this study, firstly, reveals both Chinese young adults' strong tendency to enter homeownership early in their housing trajectories and the key role of parental support. Alongside the influence of parental financial support and other socioeconomic resources in housing market entry, the analysis shows the importance of living in parental-owned housing in enabling subsequent homeownership access. Secondly, we investigate the spatial dimension of the intergenerational reproduction of inequality. While descriptive analyses imply more advantaged parental backgrounds structure access to higher value and to some extent higher gain submarkets, our regression modelling points to significant effects being concentrated among individual socioeconomic characteristics. We contend that research integrating both tenure and spatial housing market dynamics is valuable in understanding the transmission of housing inequalities across generations.