ABSTRACT
Mortgages developed as a form of long-term finance for individual home-ownership with the emergence of mass markets for owner-occupied house building. As was shown in the previous chapter, the timing of the growth of urban home-ownership differs substantially between countries. In the USA and Britain, the inter-war period marked the advent of mass homeownership, whereas in most European countries it developed during the post-war era. Owner occupation did exist before then, but mainly in the form of scattered, self-built housing developments in rural areas.
