Changes in the distribution of housing wealth in Great Britain, 1985-91

Abstract

The second half of the 1980s was a particularly turbulent time for the British housing market, during which time sizeable real capital gains accrued to owner-occupiers, particularly those who were already owner-occupiers at the start of this period. The paper constructs housing wealth estimates disaggregated by household from the 1985 GHS and 1991 BHPS Wave 1 in order to explain the distributional consequences of the housing market experience. The paper finds that there has been a modest increase in housing wealth inequality, but one that is more pronounced for gross housing wealth compared with equity. This growth has been offset by the growth in owner-occupation and the benefits of the council house right-to-buy scheme.