Homeownership out of reach? Intergenerational transfers and homeownership reproduction in middle class families in Rome, Italy

Gentili, M.; Hoekstra, J.S.C.M.

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2021.103277

Homeownership out of reach? Intergenerational transfers and homeownership reproduction in middle class families in Rome, Italy

Title

Homeownership out of reach? Intergenerational transfers and homeownership reproduction in middle class families in Rome, Italy

Author

Gentili, M. (TU Delft Housing Institutions & Governance; Gran Sasso Science Institute)
Hoekstra, J.S.C.M. (TU Delft Housing Institutions & Governance)

Date

2021

Abstract

Access to homeownership for young adults is becoming more and more difficult. Italy – where homeownership rates for young adults are steadily decreasing – is a case in point. In the recent past, becoming homeowner was an obvious housing pathway for Italian young adults, even from lower-middle class families. If your parents were homeowner, you became homeowner as well, often with the help of intergenerational transfers. However, the Italian reproduction of homeownership is under severe pressure, as a result of the economic crisis and the subsequent austerity measures. Through in-depth interviews with young adults and their parents, this paper shows how deeply ingrained social expectations and aspirations surrounding homeownership – together with an objective lack of rental options – result in young adults staying longer in their parental home and becoming independent at a later age. This may have a negative impact on the social and economic dynamics within Italian society.

Subject

Homeownership
Intergenerational transfers
Italy
Middle-class
Young adults

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b481a317-13a0-4446-9fed-27ef32e3297f

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103277

ISSN

0264-2751

Source

Cities: the international journal of urban policy and planning, 116

Part of collection

Institutional Repository