Brotherhood of St Laurence lunchtime seminar - Home ownership, risk and the wealth-fare state

Secure housing careers in home ownership are increasingly challenged by the risks associated with socio-demographic changes, job insecurity and housing market volatility. Despite these risks and changing housing career paths governments are showing increasing interest in home equity based welfare initiatives, particularly those tailored to the elderly. Furthermore, innovation in mortgage markets has encouraged growing numbers of home buyers to ‘tap’ accumulated housing equity to meet pressing spending needs.  There is a curious aspect to these developments since home equity is unusual in that owners cannot hedge its value, or insure against some of the more important threats to home ownership status, for example divorce. This would not matter if these risks are trivial. However, the idea that housing careers progress smoothly from leaving the parental home through renting and then into ownership, with low housing costs matching lower income post-retirement, is losing its relevance in the 21st century. In this seminar we present evidence of home owner career paths in Australia, the threats confronting home ownership status and their implications for asset-based welfare initiatives.   

Professor Wood is in the AHURI-RMIT Research Centre of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. He previously held positions in the economics departments of Murdoch University, WA, the University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Professor Wood’s main research interests are in urban economics, housing finance and labour economics.  He has published widely and in recent years has authored articles on housing and tax published in issues of Real Estate Economics and the Journal of Housing Economics. He is currently on the International Editorial Advisory Boards of Urban Studies and Housing Studies, and has consulted to a number of organisations including the New Zealand Department of Labour, the Office of Fair Trading, Western Australia, and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.  Current research interests include the project, 'Housing wealth and welfare: unlocking housing wealth over the life cycle', funded jointly by the Australian Research Council and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council under its Linkage International Social Sciences Collaboration grant programme. The project involves researchers from Durham University, England, Cambridge University, Girton College, and RMIT University. In 2008 Professor Wood was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence at RMIT University.