TY - RPRT AB - The edges of home ownership are usually examined in terms of entry (affordability), sustainability (risk of exit through financial stress), and utility (retirees trading-out for asset-based welfare). However, this research shows there is considerable 'churn' at the edges of home ownership in all age groups. Patterns and policy implications are explored in this project. - The project used the household panel surveys of Australia (HILDA) and the UK (BHPS and UKHLS) to analyse the character and trajectories of households on the edges of home ownership. The study profiled three groups of owners: ongoing owners who are able to attain and sustain home ownership to the end of a 10-year study period; leavers , who attain owner occupation but exit during the study period; and churners , who leave and return to owner occupation at least once. It revealed that: The incidence of leaving in Australia (9%) is almost double that of the UK (5%). The incidence of churning is even higher in Australia (13%) compared to the UK (4%). Leavers scored highest on all indicators in terms of financial stress, and dropped out for economic reasons. In both countries, being young and single, and being separated or divorced, increases the risk of falling out of ownership (as does ill-health, but only in the UK). Churners showed a mix of characteristics, some of which show affinities with on-going owners, while others place them close to the edges. Ex-home owners have a good chance of returning to ownership—60 per cent in Australia, 41 per cent in the UK—as long as they do so quickly. A key determinant of regaining owner occupation—is the ability to maintain or enhance wealth-holdings while renting. The difference in levels of churn between the countries may be accounted for by the larger Australian rental sector which is sufficiently flexible and diverse to allow households to adjust their housing outlays to income by changing tenure. Present Australian policy targets direct subsidies on first home buyers and tax subsidies to higher income over-65 outright home owners as part of a wider effort to underpin household financed home ownership and a retirement incomes policy based on low housing costs in old age. Churning and exits show households are choosing or are forced to release equity at other stages of the life course, potentially undermining this objective. The study suggests greater protection can be offered to those at the edges of ownership by developing a new style of mortgage contract with a wider range of risk sharing. For example, churn triggered by budgetary concerns might be reduced by financial instruments that allow owners to swap (high) purchase costs for (lower) rental payments while remaining in the same residence. - AU - Wood, Gavin AU - Smith, S.J. AU - Ong, R. AU - Cigdem, M. CY - Melbourne L1 - internal-pdf://2551416415/AHURI_Final_Report_No216_The edges of home own.pdf M1 - 53011 M3 - FR NV - RMIT PB - Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited PY - 2013 ST - The edges of home ownership T2 - AHURI Final Report No. 216 TI - The edges of home ownership UR - https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/216 ID - 346 ER -