Can Age Help to Explain Heterogeneity in Southern European Home Ownership Patterns

Alda B. Azevedo, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and University of Lisbon
Julián López-Colás, Center for Demographic Studies (Barcelona)
Juan A. Módenes, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

This paper aims to explain the role of age as keystone to the heterogeneity in home ownership patterns in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. Making use of the EU-SILC micro-data (2005 and 2009) the empirical analysis is guided to: (1) capture the main traits of tenure status; (2) rank the variables that best explain home ownership positioning age group in each country; (3) analyse the influence of age group in the likelihood of be home owner in each country. The results affirmatively answer the research question. On the one hand, due to historical differences in housing markets, cohort effects turned age into a major element of heterogeneity, especially in middle and old age groups. On the other hand, despite the globalized world, economic cleavages arising from the current economic crisis are creating asymmetries in access to the home ownership that affect particularly the younger age groups.