Kováts Bence: The Financialisation of Housing and Housing-related Family Support in Hungary
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1. Introduction
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1.1. Aim

1.1. Aim

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Modern political economy suggests that under capitalism societies are significantly shaped by the interplay of two phenomena: on the one hand, the expansion of market processes, known as commodification, impeding the population’s access to basic amenities such as healthy food, habitat and leisure; on the other hand, state intervention, known as de-commodification, protecting the population from adverse effects of market processes through regulation and redistribution. Commodification and de-commodification are argued to evolve in a cyclical way: de-commodification is considered to emerge out of political movements triggered by the adverse social effects of commodification, however, cycles of de-commodification are followed by phases of commodification (Polanyi, 2001).

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In the literature, for long, housing outcomes were seen to be shaped by the interplay of the same two processes: commodification compromising the affordability and quality of housing, and de-commodification bringing about improvement. Global housing price appreciation caused by the expansion of mortgage lending and shrinking non-profit housing provision have been topics widely discussed in housing studies in the past few decades as signs of commodification impeding access to affordable and adequate housing (Harloe, 1985, 1995; Harvey, 2006; Aalbers, 2016), and driving social inequalities in general (Piketty, 2014, p. 116; Ryan-Collins, Lloyd and Macfarlane, 2017). Even though these processes have been taking place for a long time, state intervention to counter these trends has not yet taken shape (Flynn and Schwartz, 2017).

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Recently, following the shock caused by the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), the commodification of housing has gained fresh momentum while state action to limit commodification, such as the provision of non-profit housing, has been very modest . These developments resulted in the increase of the burdens of households; particularly new entrants to the housing market, young adults. The family’s role in housing support – besides the market and the state – were previously neglected in housing studies due to its association with pre-capitalist times. However, recently it has become a vividly discussed topic (McKee, 2012; Flynn and Schwartz, 2017; Isengard, König and Szydlik, 2018; Ronald, 2018; Ronald and Lennartz, 2018).

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Recent increase in relying on family support in housing access was not only noted in the highest-income countries of the world but also in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Cirman, 2008; Mandic, 2012; Stephens, Lux and Sunega, 2015; Lux, Sunega and Kážmér, 2021; Hegedüs, 2020; Lux and Sunega, 2020). However, given the region’s different history it is questionable if it is the materialisation of the same global trend and not the outcome of the transition from state-socialism to market capitalism. Most Central and Eastern European (CEE) housing theorists suggest that the reliance on the family in housing provision, also known as familialisation, is inherent to the protracted transition from a state-controlled housing system into a market-based one and is predicted to abate once the transition is complete (Norris and Domański, 2009; Stephens, Lux and Sunega, 2015).

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This paradigm, expecting the decrease of family support due to the expansion of the market, suggests that the relationship between the market and the family in the region is the opposite to that identified in highest-income countries where familialisation is discussed as the consequence of the recent wave of commodification. Since links between the family and commodification in housing in Hungary are little explored both theoretically and empirically, a closer examination of this relationship in the particular Hungarian context affected by four decades of state socialism is worth pursuing.

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The aim of the book is to explore the above relationship. However, this undertaking requires the evaluation of family support over time and its drivers while information on the phenomenon is scarce. Moreover, the existing data about the issue was analysed in different theoretical frameworks and was not linked to discussions in global housing studies. Several studies exist that examine family support through one certain type of support (Sik, 1988; Hegedüs, 1992; Medgyesi and Nagy, 2014), or as part of analyses focusing on broader themes such as Hungarian housing conditions or intergenerational status transfers (Sik, 1984; Róbert, 1986, 1991; Farkas et al., 2005; Medgyesi, 2007; Dóra, 2018; Székely, 2018; Balogi and Kőszeghy, 2019; Örkény and Székelyi, n.a.).

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Housing-related family support takes a large variety of forms and not all of them can be empirically explored in detail. Therefore, in order to trace the development of the phenomenon, the scope of the inquiry needs to be limited to one type of family support. The international literature usually examines housing-related family support through the most frequent forms of housing-related parental support (hereinafter parental support): co-residence of young adults and their parents (hereinafter intergenerational co-residence), and housing-related parental inter vivos (between living family members) financial support (hereinafter financial support) that includes the transfer of money from living parents to adult children to access housing and the transfer of housing units (Albertini and Kohli, 2013; Albertini, Tosi and Kohli, 2018; Isengard, König and Szydlik, 2018; Ronald and Lennartz, 2018). Parental labour support in housing construction (hereinafter construction support) is usually discussed in the context of lower-income countries (Mathéy, 1992; Bredenoord, Lindert and Smets, 2014), however, since in CEE self-build is claimed to be widespread (Hegedüs and Tosics, 1996; Tsenkova, 2009; Stephens, Lux and Sunega, 2015), it is also included in the analysis.

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Though longitudinal datasets are scarcely available about the aforementioned types of parental support, data about them can be found in several sources. Censuses, and various other, regularly conducted and one-off surveys about parental support have so far not been analysed together. In the book, these available aggregated data are collected and analysed through descriptive statistics.

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Another important aspect of parental support is its determinants on the level of individuals. The examination of national developments may reveal important causal relationships on the macro level, however, microdeterminants of parental support provide additional valuable information on the mechanisms affecting it. The impact of socio-economic characteristics of parents on the role of parental support in mitigating or enhancing existing inequalities is particularly interesting. Since publications exploring determinants of intergenerational co-residence and financial support on several case studies (of mostly high-income countries) abound (Mayer and Engelhardt, 1994; Gulbrandsen and Langsether, 2003; Albertini and Kohli, 2013; Mulder and Smits, 2013; Isengard, König and Szydlik, 2018; Lux, Sunega and Kážmér, 2021) and recent Hungarian microdata is also available on the subject, local patterns regarding the determinants of parental support can be identified and evaluated.
 
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