Leveraging the Double Advantages of Parental Housing and Urban Location: In-Kind Housing Support and Transition into Home Ownership in Taiwan

While parents have long played critical roles in the early housing careers of their adult children in East Asian contexts, little attention has been paid to the contemporary dynamics of in-kind support and the impact of shifting housing market conditions, particularly for those living in high-cost urban areas. This paper explores how in-kind intergenerational housing support shapes pathways into home ownership for co-residing adult children in Taipei. Drawing upon panel data in Taiwan (PSFD data from 2009, with follow-ups until 2020), longitudinal analysis is conducted on housing transitions. Principal component analysis is first employed to test and confirm the hypothesis that those living in Taipei are more likely to co-reside with their parents before achieving home ownership. Event history analysis is then used to test the second hypothesis: that intergenerational co-residence benefits those co-residing with parents in Taipei in their transition to home ownership. The Cox proportional hazards model for home ownership reveals that, consistent with previous findings, individual characteristics such as age, marital status, and education are critical in determining home ownership. More importantly, those living with their parents in Taipei are more likely to become homeowners compared to their renting counterparts. Our analysis suggests that by leveraging the spatial advantage of parental housing location through intergenerational co-residence, city dwellers who co-reside are significantly more likely to become homeowners than renters. This nested system of family and market housing resources reveals a clear housing pathway and highlights inequalities in achieving home ownership based on family housing resources.