Divorce and the Housing Movements of Owner-Occupiers: A European Comparison

Divorce usually carries a range of economic consequences for both men and women, the housing situation of the ex-partners being among the most important ones. So far, however, the housing consequences of this life event, and in particular the way these are influenced by institutional arrangements, have been somewhat of a neglected topic. This paper focuses on one aspect of this process, more specifically the impact of divorce on tenure changes of homeowners, using comparative panel data for 12 European countries. It is concluded that although divorce significantly raises the odds of experiencing a tenure change for homeowners in all countries under consideration, this process is fairly similar across European welfare states. While institutional arrangements mitigating the economic consequences of divorce for women do not seem to explain much variation between countries, cross-national differences in tenure changes for homeowners are partly influenced by social housing policies and the extent of family support.