ABSTRACT
Over the last 40 years, home ownership has come to dominate the housing landscape in the UK in a variety of different ways, including government policy, household tenure and personal fi nances. Its progression to that position has not been without interruption or diffi culties but the reality is plain to see, in terms of the size of the sector, debt, assets and the scale of housing and mortgage markets. Against this backcloth of ‘success’ we have a number of issues surrounding the rise of home ownership – some very obvious, others rather more hidden – and the purpose of this chapter is to explore how the sector has evolved, the role it now plays and how it might change in the future. Without doubt it is now poised on the cusp of change and it is important we understand future dynamics and how these might play out both within the sector itself and in the wider polity and economy.
