ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the key positions within what is known as the housing classes debate and then builds upon the understanding that has been developed through debate to establish key parameters which represent the current ‘state of play’ in the theorising of housing tenure. Housing tenure thus emerged as one aspect of a housing hierarchy that urban dwellers were competing for with home ownership at the top end and lodging houses at the bottom. As more and more countries exhibit high ratios of home ownership, so it is important to understand what this will mean for these nations sociologically. The sociological understanding of housing tenure over the past 25 years can somewhat crudely be reduced to two different approaches: those who argue that home ownership has collectivist tendencies and those who argue it has anti-collectivist or fragmentary tendencies. The essence of the collectivist approach is that home ownership is seen to be the basis for the formation of social groups.
