The ageing of European societies, the mounting pressure on pension systems, the rise of home ownership and the growth in house prices have sparked interest in housing equity release options and strategies. Much of the available literature approaches this topic through a financial lens, focusing on equity release schemes as a way to free up housing equity while remaining in the dwelling. However, there are also other ways in which housing wealth can be extracted, such as downsizing, moving to a rental dwelling or subletting part of the dwelling. There is very little recent international comparative insight into the perceptions and preferences of older home owners with regard to this matter. Which housing equity release strategy do they prefer and why? And to what extent is their decision to release housing equity influenced by the bequest motive? Based on focus group research in six European countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands), this paper observes some general trends and identifies a number of country specific variations.

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The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had a severe impact on West and South European economies and in 2009, GDP declines ranged from -5.6% in Germany to -3.6% in Spain. Against the background of strong GDP declines it is quite remarkable that European housing market indicators showed strong international variability. Whereas transaction levels in Germany and Belgium remained quite stable, transactions plummeted in the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland and Spain. Furthermore, repossessions rapidly increased to well over 100,000 cases in the UK and Spain in the first years of the crisis, while in Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, approximately 10,000 owner-occupiers lost their homes. In Germany, repossession levels were actually on the decline after economic turmoil of the early 2000’s. This raises questions about the backgrounds of these international variations in the impact of the GFC. What factors play a role in the German and Belgian immunity of housing transactions and repossessions to the GFC? Furthermore, what measures have been taken in those countries where housing markets suffered most from the impact of the GFC in terms of transactions and repossessions? The overarching objective of this thesis is to gain an improved understanding of factors that determine the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on national home ownership markets. A related objective is to find how societies in the most affected countries have responded to the problems...@en

Rotterdam South is a district where many of the approximately 200,000 residents suffer from a multitude of problems such as low incomes, inadequate professional skills, educational and language deficiencies, unmanageable debts, substance abuse and health/mental problems. Crime has the potential to undermine local society, by luring persons with a poor outlook into criminal careers. Many areas of the district are not considered a positive environment for children to grow up, which restricts youths to reach their full socioeconomic potential.@en

This report and its Annex present the results of the research project “Promoting the contribution of private savings to pension adequacy: Integrating residential property with private pensions in the EU” led by iff, institute for financial services, Hamburg. Financial support by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank the many participants and stakeholders involved in our work over the course of 2016 and 2017.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s EaSi Grant Programme under grant agreement No VS/2015/0218. This publication reflects only the authors’ views and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.@en

This Annex together with the final report present the results of the research project “Promoting the contribution of private savings to pension adequacy: Integrating residential property with private pensions in the EU” led by iff, institute for financial services, Hamburg. Financial support by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank the many participants and stakeholders involved in our work over the course of 2016 and 2017.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s EaSi Grant Programme under grant agreement No VS/2015/0218. This publication reflects only the authors’ views and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.@en

Housing cooperatives imply that a group of people organize themselves in order to build and/or manage housing for the group as a whole. The chapter outlines the research methods and explains the emergence of housing co-operatives in Spain in general terms. It deals with the general institutional and historical background of the housing cooperatives in Spain. Cooperative housing models based on a distinction between ownership rights and usage rights appear in different forms and by various names depending on the country. The chapter explores the connections between these new initiatives and the existing institutions. An often-mentioned institutional problem concerns the inexperience of the financial sector with financing housing cooperatives. The chapter aims to examine the housing innovations in Spain in more detail and to learn about their organization and management. However, there has been an increase in small organizations and consultancies that assist these initiatives, usually on a commercial basis.@en

The ageing of European societies and increasing pressure on collective pension arrangements has sparked interest in alternative, more individualised forms of pension provision. Home ownership is regarded as one of these alternatives. Home owners can release housing equity by moving to a smaller owner occupied dwelling or a rental dwelling. Moreover, in some countries, where the pension system is already more individualised, the financial industry has been pioneering so called equity release products, which allow pensioners to supplement their income, while staying in their home. There has been much debate on the desirability of such a way of pension provision, the actual form it should take and the risks involved. However, there is still little (comparative) insight into the perceptions of older citizens on this matter. This paper aims to fill this gap. It presents empirical findings, based on focus group research, on the attitudes towards home ownership, pensions and equity release schemes in six EU countries (Germany, UK, Ireland, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands). It shows variations in attitudes per country, but also a common awareness that pension systems are under pressure and that there may be a need to tap into the dwelling in order to meet financial needs in old age. At the same time, there is still much suspicion against complex financial products such as equity release schemes. Consequently, there is a need for independent platforms that endorse products through, for instance, a quality label.@en

This article investigates the backgrounds to changing residential mobility of Dutch owner‑occupiers from 1986‑2006 and during the 2008-2018 crisis. The Oaxaca‑Blinder decomposition is used to disentangle the main factors at work. Households of all age groups and family types have become more mobile in 1986-2006, with the highest increase amongst the youngest age groups. Nonetheless, ageing of owner‑occupiers has dampened the growth between 1986 and 2006, because older owner‑occupiers usually move less frequently than younger age groups. Had this ageing process not taken place, the overall increase in mobility would have been much higher (about 3.5 percentage points) than the 1.4 percentage point observed. The overall compositional effect remains negative despite a shift from traditional families with children towards more singles and couples without children, who are more mobile. During the crisis of 2008‑2012, high residential mobility rates amongst the young age groups took a sharp negative turn. Combined with their increased presence among owner‑occupiers, this implies that the contemporary Dutch owner occupied sector is more vulnerable to economic shocks.@en

Increasingly, policy-makers regard flexible labour as a condition for a well-functioning economy, while they also tend to regard home ownership as the superior tenure. These two goals appear to be contradictory, as mortgage lenders prefer clients with a permanent, uninterrupted income stream. For the Dutch context, multivariate analysis shows that flexworkers on temporary/zero hour contracts have smaller chances of moving into home ownership than those on permanent contracts. They also tend to express less preference for home ownership. Because flexworkers often experience spells of unemployment, risk aversion appears to play a role. Our findings show, in the Netherlands at least, that self-employed freelancers do not experience too many problems in accessing home ownership, possibly because of more stable and higher incomes. However, the role of flexible labour is on the rise and policy-makers might consider methods to promote access to home ownership, ranging from mortgage guarantee schemes to mortgage payment insurances. Our research findings may not always be valid for other countries because of international variation in institutional arrangements, such as unemployment benefits, mortgage insurance and guarantee schemes, etc., but, nonetheless, sheds considerable light on this policy issue.@en

The Spanish home ownership sector has been hit hard by the economic crisis. Repossessions stand at around half a million in the period from 2008 to 2014. This article investigates how the authorities, both at the level of the Spanish state and of the autonomous communities (regions), have responded to this problem. We investigated whether they assist troubled home owners and aim to design a less risky housing system, with more (social) rental housing. Our research in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Andalusia shows that Autonomous Communities are playing an increasingly important role in this matter. This finding fits well with theories on the formation of regional varieties of welfare, which indicate that flaws of the central governments in providing social welfare, are increasingly addressed by regions. The Basque Country seems to be on the way of designing the most comprehensive system of housing policies of the three regions, including a strong Right to Housing. All three regions regard the mobilisation of the large vacant dwelling stock as an important means to provide more affordable rental housing. However, the owners are often unwilling and the three regions have proposed drastic measures, such as fines and even temporary expropriations. The central government resists such measures, because they might interfere with the proper working of the country’s financial system. It shows that certain policy competences can never be totally isolated from other policy fields and multi-level distribution of competences makes it all the more complex.

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Als gevolg van het verstrekken van hoge leningen ten opzichte van de w/aarde van de woning, heeft de recente prijsdaling van koopwoningen ertoe geleid dat vooral recente kopers 'onderwater' staan. Dit heeft de risicoperceptie van vele eigenaar bewoners gewijzigd omdat een potentiële restschuld een doorverhuizing belemmert. Daarnaast komt deze leningspraktijk onder druk te staan door strengere kapitaaieisen, terwijl ook internationale beleggers, belangrijke financiers van de Nederlandse hypotheekmarkt, terughoudend staan ten opzichte van hoge LTV's. Wanneer deze ontwikkelingen leiden tot een grotere nadruk op sparen bij de financiering van de eigen woning, dan kan het bouwsparen daaraan een bijdrage leveren.@en