Home ownership as a financial resource? Household's perceptions in eight European countries

Being a home owner might become of crucial importance to European citizens as national labour markets become more flexible and social welfare systems decline. Temporary and flexible job contracts combined with diminishing levels of social provision make income insecurity bigger. To prevent themselves from possibly severe consequences European citizens need to increasingly reflect on income risks and to take private measures. Home ownership, and in particular housing equity, might become an important part of a household¿s financial safety nets. The central question of this paper is how perceptions of home ownership are related to income insecurity and to what extent home ownership is part of household¿s financial safety net strategies; differences and similarities between countries will be explored. Furthermore, we will elaborate on the extent to which the use of home ownership as a financial resource is a new development. The analysis is based on a EU project: OSIS (Origins of security and insecurity. The interplay of housing systems with jobs, household structures, finance and social security).