Sociological theme: Parents and adult children
Data source:
Key skills:
Communication
Sociological skill:
Interpreting data
Survey reveals the price parents will pay to put children on the home ownership ladder
Parents of would-be homeowners expect they will have to contribute an average £17,000 of their own money so their adult children can gain a foothold on the increasingly expensive housing ladder.
A survey by MORI for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation of home-owning parents of 18- to 29-year-olds reveals that more than half who expect their children to become homebuyers think they won’t succeed without a substantial financial contribution.
And while the average sum identified as a likely gift or loan is £17,000, the figure in the North of England, where starter homes are least expensive, is significantly lower at £7,220, rising to £23,670 in the South, where prices are highest and housing shortages most acute.
A majority of parents who are prepared to help believe they can find the money without changing the financial arrangements for their own home, but one in five (22 per cent) are prepared to borrow to raise capital for their children.
The MORI survey findings*, based on interviews with 560 home owners with adult children, points to a three-way split between those whose children have already started to buy a house, those that are renting and those still living at home. Among parents with a son or daughter who had not yet started to buy, 85 per cent thought it likely their child would want to buy their own home in the next ten years.
But when asked if their child would be able to set foot on the housing ladder without parental financial support, fewer than half (45 per cent) said it was likely, compared with 52 per cent who thought it was not. Nearly half (47 per cent) anticipated that they would be willing and able to offer financial support, with most saying it would be in the form of a gift, rather than a loan.
Parents with more than one adult child who was not an owner-occupier were mostly convinced they could offer financial support with house buying to all their children. However, one in eight (12 per cent) considered it unlikely they would be able to do this.
Among home-owning parents who were not able or willing to offer financial help, over half (53 per cent) believed their children would still manage to obtain a mortgage or loan. Three in ten (29 per cent) referred to renting and one in eight (12 per cent) said their child could continue to live with them. Parents who anticipated that their child would be able to buy their first home unaided were in a majority (63 per cent) in the North, but a minority in the South (38 per cent).
Richard Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “Parents who are owner-occupiers are coming to terms with the fact that high house prices are not necessarily good news after all. The value of their own property may have risen, but their children will find it increasingly difficult to follow them up the home ownership ladder unless they are prepared to help them with a substantial gift or loan.
“Our own research has shown just how unaffordable starter homes have become across the South of England in relation to local pay for young adults. The truth, for better or worse, is that homes will only become more affordable when we have increased the level of house building in areas where shortages are acute – a point underlined by Kate Barker’s recent review of housing supply for H.M. Treasury.”
Homeowners:Sons and Daughters, a survey of parents who are owner-occupiers, was carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the MORI Social Research Institute. Fieldwork was conducted in March 2004 during two waves of the fortnightly MORI Omnibus – each with a representative sample of around 2,000 adults aged 15 and over. Among the 2,890 homeowners interviewed, 561 respondents were identified with children aged 18 to 29.
Can work – can’t buy by Prof. Steve Wilcox, the Foundation’s 2003 report on young people’s access to starter homes in English districts, can also be found on this website.
Questions: Knowledge and Interpretation
- How much do parents expect to pay towards adult children’s housing?
- What regional differences are there in the amounts that parents expect to pay?
- How do people raise the money to help their chilren?
- Who conducted the survey?
- How many people were in the sample?
- What problems did parents of more than one adult child face?
- What conclusions did the Joseph Rowntree Foundation come to about the change in adult attitudes to rising house prices?
- What implications do the rise in house prices along side the comparatively low pay for young adults have for families and family life?
Questions: Analysis and evaluation
- At what point do young people become seen as fully adult in our society?
- Suggest what other social impacts rising house prices may have on society. (Think about the implications for birth rates, complete family size, relationships of adult children with parents and anything else that might be relevant)
Methodology problem
How could you design a qualitative research study into the young adults who remain at home with their parents into their late twenties? What ethical and practical problems might you experience?