ESRC Society Today

This qualitative study of mortgage holders is concerned with the meaning, significance and use of housing wealth in consumption. Over two-thirds of British households own or are buying their home: housing is probably their biggest – possibly their only - major financial investment. And it has generally paid off. Between 1971 and 2002 the UK (together with Spain) topped the OECD league table for average annual increases in real house prices. At the same time, the boundary between housing wealth and spending money has become increasingly porous. Low interest rates and unprecedented financial product innovation have made it cheap and increasingly easy for borrowers to extract their housing wealth in situ and spend it across the life course. 

Enhanced access to an appreciating store of housing wealth has important implications for the economy, for households’ indebtedness and for the sustainability of owner occupation. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the aspirations, motivations and behaviours which determine the ebb and flow of housing equity between domestic property and other goods and services. To explore this, ‘Banking on housing’ documents the consumption of mortgage products and related financial services, and considers why and how they are used to turn a fixed asset (housing) easily and routinely into cash. The research thus sets housing wealth in the context of households’ wider strategies for managing savings, spending and debt.

The findings will: account for the extent to which equity is reinvested into the housing stock or directed into other areas of consumption; assess the risks associated with equity withdrawal; and specify any gains to social and personal wellbeing that the nature and use of housing wealth might bring. The work will also engage consumers, as well as other actors, in debates over the extent to which lenders, governments, or other communities of interest do, could or should regulate the way housing wealth is used.

Award/Grant Outputs and Documents
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