Bought, Given, or Allocated? Housing Access Pathways and stratification in South Korea

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Housing Processes

Abstract

How households access housing—whether through market purchase, family transfer, or public allocation—shapes what housing yields. This study examines whether these pathways sort households into unequal entry conditions and are associated with distinct patterns of housing outcomes across both use-value (housing conditions, space, satisfaction) and exchange-value (asset appreciation) dimensions. Moving beyond approaches that treat tenure as a unitary status, the analysis disaggregates homeownership by access pathway to reveal heterogeneity in both selection into housing and the advantages that housing yields. Using nationally representative data from the 2024 Korea Housing Survey (N=54,133), multinomial logit models estimate how socioeconomic status and gender stratification stratify pathway entry. Linear and ordered logit models assess differences in housing condition, spatial quantity, satisfaction, and asset appreciation. Results show pronounced stratification in entry: higher socioeconomic status is strongly associated with market purchase, while women are less likely to enter through market purchase and more likely to access housing through family transfer and public allocation. Pathways are also associated with distinct housing outcomes, but unevenly across domains: market purchase is associated with better housing conditions and family transfer with larger space. By contrast, pathway gaps in asset appreciation dissolve once acquisition timing and location are accounted for, indicating that apparent differences in asset accumulation primarily reflect stratified entry conditions of when and where pathways allocate households rather than pathway-specific returns.

Author

• Sungeun CHOI, Yonsei University