Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a brief housing market context within which to situate more specific consideration of negative equity. It draws on evidence from primary research over four years and from other related studies and secondary sources to provide a comprehensive account of the impact of negative equity on the British home ownership market. Negative equity emerged as an important policy issue in the late 1980s in Britain. Fuelled by a combination of real income growth, financial deregulation, council house sales and a policy environment which had a strong tenurial bias towards house purchase, home ownership grew rapidly throughout the 1980s. The book concludes with an assessment of the British home ownership market and situates the discussion of negative equity and its aftermath in contemporary policy debates about home ownership.