From canny consumer to care-full citizen: towards a nation of home stewardship? (original) (raw)

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Homebuying: a critical perspective on financial costs and gains

In Britain, the shift from the ideology of homeownership into one of homeownership-based welfare has been sustained by homebuyers being regarded as investors. Homeowners are expected to create a synergy between the owned house seen as a space of shelter, place of home and increasingly, an investment vehicle and an object of debt. Drawing on 80 interviews with owner-occupiers and national data on house prices and mortgages, we examine the way in which the meanings of home meanings are negotiated through the subjective calculation of the financial costs and gains of homebuying. We explore homebuyers' debt amnesia, their miscalculation of gains and their disregard of inflation. However homebuyers' financially unsophisticated understanding of the asset-home arises less from book-keeping complexities or difficulties in pricing the emotional domain of the home, but rather by them instinctively considering the alternative cost of a rented space of shelter. From this financial perspective and given affordability, homebuying illustrates a misleading ideological notion of choice.

Living in Assets Without Limits: Towards New Principles for Policies on Housing

Housing, Theory and Society, 2017

Piketty (2014) wrote a thought provoking book on capital, how it evolved over the decades and the role of housing in it. Maclennan and Miao (2016) further elaborate on the work of Piketty and the role of housing, and on possible implications for housing policy. There is a whole range of literature demonstrating that housing more and more changed from a roof over the head into a key asset for households, and a key element in "asset based welfare" policies. The liberalization of financial markets improved access to home ownership and with that to the possibility to build housing equity. For many decades, in many countries encouraging home ownership was the key priority in housing policy and this priority was accompanied by the "dream of home ownership as an equaliser" in societies. However, the dream of the housing markets and home ownership as equalizer and a solution for welfare states is far from reality. Maclennan and Miao (2017) therefore, conclude that it is time for a new "political economy for housing policy". This contribution reflects on the paper "Capital, housing and inequality in the 21st century" of Maclennan and Miao, and with that explores new principles for policies on housing. It advocates more emphasis on the roof over the head part of housing in housing policy and for tax policies to deal with intergenerational social equality including housing equity. Key Observations Maclennan and Miao (2016) focus on the economic debate and equality, and conclude that housing is critical influence on wealth patterns. The priority in housing policy for home ownership is underpinned by a number of wrong assumptions as Maclennan and Miao (2016) explain in their key observations.

Debted Objects: Homemaking in an Era of Mortgage-Enabled Consumption

2013

This paper assesses the relevance of mortgage-led consumption for the assemblage of home. Drawing on qualitative research completed in the UK, we show how the materials and meanings of owner-occupation are constituted by, and experienced through, the accumulation and deployment of secured debt. This is enabled by a particular financial regime, in which the proceeds of equity borrowing are freed for discretionary expenditure. Homes and their contents thus acquire the status of “debted objects”, and these form an interface between the financial and familial values comprising residential space. By attending to these mortgage-enabled purchases, we expose and evaluate the myriad ways in which equity borrowings animate the assemblage of home, adding value to property, linking domestic space with distant geographies and inspiring the art of dwelling.

Rethinking the risks of home ownership

2008

The positive health effects of owner-occupation, compared to renting, are well documented. But home ownership is itself heterogeneous, as is the health profile of its incumbents, and this is less well recognised. Drawing from a mixed-methods study, which includes 150 qualitative interviews with a cross-section of UK mortgage holders, this paper examines the health implications of a definitive feature of owned housing: its role as a financial tool. In particular, we ask whether there is anything about the process of accumulating wealth into housing or spending from this resource, that enhances well-being (or that adds to psycho-social stress). This question is timely, coming at the end of a long-wave of house-price appreciation, in a setting where it is easy to borrow from housing wealth, under a policy regime that looks increasingly to owned homes as an asset base for welfare. The answer casts light on whether, in what circumstances, to what extent, and by what mechanism, home ownership -the dominant housing tenure of the English-speaking world -might enhance the well-being of individuals, communities and societies.

From housing wealth to well-being?

Sociology of Health & Illness, 2009

The positive health effects of owner-occupation, compared to renting, are well documented. But home ownership is itself heterogeneous, as is the health profile of its incumbents, and this is less well recognised. Drawing from a mixed-methods study, which includes 150 qualitative interviews with a cross-section of UK mortgage holders, this paper examines the health implications of a definitive feature of owned housing: its role as a financial tool. In particular, we ask whether there is anything about the process of accumulating wealth into housing or spending from this resource, that enhances well-being (or that adds to psycho-social stress). This question is timely, coming at the end of a long-wave of house-price appreciation, in a setting where it is easy to borrow from housing wealth, under a policy regime that looks increasingly to owned homes as an asset base for welfare. The answer casts light on whether, in what circumstances, to what extent, and by what mechanism, home ownership -the dominant housing tenure of the English-speaking world -might enhance the well-being of individuals, communities and societies.

The edges of home ownership – the borders of sustainability

International Journal of Housing Policy

In many Western countries the edges of ownership form a neglected zone between the majority tenure, sustainable owner-occupation, and the minority experience, long-term renting. In these tenure-divided societies, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid to the zone of transition between styles of accommodation, not least because the edges of ownership are now so precarious. The six papers included in this special issue advance empirical and conceptual understandings of these neglected zones, showing how, increasingly, they compromise the sustainability of housing solutions. Some approach this by developing an understanding of how the changing fungibility of housing wealth has transformed its welfare role, while at the same time exposing those on the edges of ownership to heightened levels of risk. A second set of papers report from a variety of jurisdictions to show how the structure of the edges of owner-occupation vary across cultures and countries, and change over time.

Channels from Housing Wealth to Consumption

Housing Studies, 2013

This paper uses micro-data from two national panel surveys to analyse the flow of wealth from residential property onto households' balance sheets, where it is available for discretionary spending. The examples are Australia and the UK-two of the world's most entrenched nations of owner occupation, both with relatively complete mortgage markets. We focus on the early 2000s, which set the scene for an unprecedented wave of housing equity withdrawal. We consider equity released through sales and through additional borrowing. The findings show that equity extraction overall is not only (or even) a function of higher incomes, greater wealth and older age. Rather, it occurs across the life course, and is linked to pressing spending needs. We draw attention in particular to the growing social and economic significance of in situ equity borrowinga practice whose financial buffering effects may form a short-lived prelude, rather than a sustainable alternative, to trading on or selling up

Home ownership: getting in, getting from, getting out

2006

, it was held under the auspices of the European Network of Housing Researchers. We are grateful to the conference organisers for allowing us to lead a number of sessions on the topic of 'Home ownership and risk', at which the papers, subsequently rewritten as chapters here, were presented. We also wish to acknowledge the support of the European Union for its funding of the OSIS project in which the three editors are involved. OSIS-Origins of Security and Insecurity: the interplay of housing systems with jobs, household structures, finance and social security-is a pan-European study with research partners drawn from nine member states and is funded under the framework six programme (CIT2-CT-2003-506007). Further details of OSIS can be obtained from www.osis.bham.ac.uk.