Anglo-Saxon Homeowner Societies

Abstract

The relative size of owner-occupied housing sectors varies substantially among Western industrialized societies and has often been associated with levels of economic growth and affluence. However, national wealth is a very poor indicator of social propensities towards home ownership (Schmidt, 1989) and the proportion of owner-occupiers in a given society tells us relatively little about the function of home ownership within a housing or social system. Moreover, while the debate on home ownership has a rather undifferentiated concept of housing tenure, significant differences exist in the organization or experience of home ownership regarding ways of becoming an owner-occupier, its timing, housing quality, associated rights and advantages, and social and spatial characteristics of areas where households settle (Harloe and Maartjens, 1983; Ruonavaara, 1993). The concept of ‘homeowner society’ applied so far in this book concerns a particular model based on experiences in the economically liberal, English speaking countries. In these countries there appears to be some consistency in state approaches to the promotion of home ownership, on one side, and a cultural ideal of home ownership consumption on the other, with the tenure achieving an iconic status.