ABSTRACT
Comparisons of housing expenditure have been made in several countries, including the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France (Ministerie van VROM 1989; Department of the Environment 1990; Hills 1991; Taffin 1991). Such surveys usually use the household housing-expenditure ratio which shows the proportion of household income that is spent on housing. This focus on the expenditure of households can easily be explained by the way surveys, such as the British Family Expenditure Survey, the Dutch Housing Need Survey and the French Housing Survey, are carried out. The registration of outlay expenses (cash flows) induces expenditure comparisons. However, as Hills states: ‘cash flow measures may be misleading as a guide to the true value of the advantages of owners and tenants’ (1991: 28).
