The Negotiation of Intergenerational Support for Housing: Diverging Patterns Among Renters and Homeowners

Rising housing prices in major Western cities have increased the share of middle-class households living in the private rental sector and heightened the importance of parental financial support in shaping their housing trajectories. Drawing on qualitative interviews carried out with middle-class households aged 30 to 39 in the Paris Metropolitan Area, this paper examines how parental financial support is negotiated among homebuyers and renters and how it affects family relationships. Results indicate striking divergences across housing tenure. Support for homeownership is viewed as a legitimate cause and fosters family bonding, because it is central to middle-class status and facilitates wealth accumulation. Conversely, middle-class renters report feelings of ongoing dependence. This is primarily driven by the nature of support that complicates reciprocation, and the perceived devaluation of middle-class status associated with rental housing. Overall, these findings suggest that representations of tenure, housing expectations and wealth accumulation concerns amid growing economic insecurity help explain why housing tenure shapes middle-class perspectives on parental support. I conclude by highlighting the salience of tenure for understanding the relationship between housing, social class and family relations in the context of welfare state retrenchment and growing middle-class status anxiety.