Housing inequality in young adulthood

This thesis seeks to better capture the complexities, variations, and implications of housing inequality in young adulthood over the first two decades of the 21st century, between socio-economic groups, across contexts, and beyond a simplistic tenure-centric lens. First, a multidimensional perspective consolidates the drivers, features and outcomes of housing inequality. Joining macro level changes with micro level outcomes, it links systemic changes in welfare and housing systems to changing living arrangements and their social, spatial and economic impacts. Second, a relational perspective examines the socio-economic stratifications of these trends, contributing to an empirically grounded, class-based understanding of housing inequalities. Third, a cross-country perspective, drawing on the Netherlands and Australia, broadens insights shaped predominantly by Anglophone and economically liberal contexts. It illuminates how housing inequalities manifest in more regulated housing markets, and explores how housing and welfare dynamics, alongside socio-cultural, political, and economic factors, shape and stratify these inequalities.