Housing aspirations and social comparison processes

Abstract

It is often assumed that people aspire to become homeown-ers, especially in cities like Hong Kong which are characterized by mass homeownership. In the literature on intergeneration-al support, it has been observed that parents are prepared to financially support their adult children, especially if this in-volves home purchase. Yet, few studies have explored the role of social comparison processes, which may underpin so-called cultural preferences for homeownership. In particular, it is not clear which standards or comparison targets that people choose to evaluate themselves against. This paper reviews a range of social comparison theories, and considers which as-pects of these theories are relevant to analysing housing aspi-rations. The aim is to develop an analytical framework for in-vestigating the socio-psychological processes which underpin young adults’ perceptions of homeownership and other housing arrangements.