ABSTRACT

The public obsession with housing, as expressed in the media, dwells on two things: house prices and décor. The news is filled with speculation about the direction of house prices and the consequences of any change. Experts speculate on the effects for the national economy of any changes, and comment on what this means for personal and aggregate wealth. The question deemed to matter is: is housing still a good investment? In other words, what can we expect of the future? Second, in recent years, we have become inundated with television programmes and magazines on décor and domestic design. We, or some of us, avidly watch other experts pontificating on colour schemes, soft furnishings and fixtures and fittings. We watch the tastes of others being excoriated by style gurus and then we are advised on how to do it ‘properly’; we can now have no excuse for not living well, so long, that is, as our house is sufficiently valuable to make the future something worth planning for! We are now, it appears, a nation of neurotic snobs, sneering at the tastes of others, whilst worrying about our investments. We watch programmes advising us on ‘good taste’ and the proper use of space, and wonder if we too are not guilty of ‘style crime’.