Posiadanie własnego mieszkania a rodzicielstwo w Polsce

Having a home of one’s own was enumerated by Hobcraft and Kiernan (1995) as one of the five pre-conditions for the entry to parenthood in industrialised eco- nomies. The importance of home ownership for the decision to become a parent has not been investigated for Poland, however. This article aims at filling partly this gap through examining the relationship between home ownership and first birth among Polish women born 1971–1981. This research issue is considered to be important due to a decline in the number of dwellings completed each year as well as the enormous increase in housing prices that were observed in Poland after 1989. Our empirical findings point out a strong and positive relationship between home ownership and entry to motherhood. More in-depth analyses show that this result is mostly to be attributed to the fact that parents-to-be condition the realisation of their childbearing plan made in the past on becoming a home owner. It is to be noted, that rental accommodation is a far less attractive option for persons planning a child, as is the residence at parents’ dwelling. These results are largely consistent with empirical findings of other researchers investigating this issue in other industrialised economies and suggest that difficulties with a home purchase are one of the reasons for fertility postponement in Poland.