Equal in incomes, unequal in Wealth? Housing Wealth inequalities in the Czech Republic

Abstract

This article focuses on the problem of wealth inequalities as an as yet overlooked axis of social inequalities in the Czech Republic. Wealth inequalities and their development over time are measured here on the basis of the value of the real estate (a flat or house) in which the household lives. The value of household real estate has grown significantly in recent decades in the Czech Republic and Czechs still favour owner-occupied housing over other forms of housing tenure. Households whose parents were also homeowners enjoy an increasingly more evident advantage in acquiring owner-occupied housing themselves. Using selected indicators of income and wealth inequalities, this article shows that in every year observed in this study, wealth inequalities in the form of residential real estate were greater than income inequalities in Czech society. The article also finds that in the observed period lower-income homeowner households recorded lower unrealised yield on the price appreciation of the real estate they live in that higher-income homeowner households did. These findings have significant implications for measuring social inequalities, identifying potential barriers to the entry of new households into the owner-occupied housing segment, and the use of owner-occupied housing as a form of old-age security.