Smoothing Rough Transitions: the Extensive Role of Family Assistance in Pathways into Homeownership

Research addressing intergenerational financial assistance is currently uncovering a key space in which the familial transmission of advantage and disadvantage plays out. However, there is a gap between studies addressing the relationship between intergenerational assistance and outcomes in areas such as education and employment, and those addressing intergenerational assistance with entry into homeownership. The former have not addressed the impact of assistance on housing outcomes in any depth, while the latter have focused predominantly on single instances of support. As a result, little is known about the relationship between intergenerational support received over the so-called ‘transition’ to adulthood and support received specifically to aid entry into homeownership. This article presents data from ‘housing pathway’ interviews conducted with 33 young adult homeowners in Australia and in so doing begins to uncover the complex relationship between financial assistance with homeownership and previous instances of financial assistance. Drawing on the finding that homeownership appeared, in some cases, to be facilitated by seemingly unrelated forms of assistance, the paper argues for a revised conceptualisation of the relationship between independence and dependence in the transition to adulthood. Specifically, rather than understanding the achievement of adult milestones as symbolic of growing independence, it is argued that these milestones are, in some cases, achieved only through dependence on protracted forms of support. This claim challenges a dichotomous notion of dependence and independence by instead putting forward the concept of independence through dependence.