OWNER OCCUPATION THE BENEFITS OF Patrick N. Troy Urban Research Program Working Paper No. 29 December 1991 URBAN RESEARCH PROGRAM RESEARCH SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Owner Occupation ERRATA & Appendix Bibliography p.54 The publishing houses for the Forrest and Murie 1990 and the Forrest, Murie and Williams 1990 references were inadvertently omitted. The publishers for these references are respectively: Avebury and Unwin Hymen. p.59 The bibliographical reference for Watson, S. 1988 is incomplete. The full title of Watson’s book is Accommodating Inequality: Gender and Housing & p.60 The Lloyd Anderton 1991work cited in the Appendix does not appear in the bibliography. Details for that reference are as follows: & An Lloyd, C. J. Anderton, N.D. 1991, Analysis of the A 1986 Census, report prepared for the Department of Community Services and Health, Canberra. Text p.33, end of second paragraph - Gruen 1987 was mistakenly cited instead of a 1989 Housing Industry Association work entitled: ‘Housing Costs and Supply’, Papers and proceedings of the fourth Housing Finance Workshop, R. Campbell (ed.) HIA, Canberra. THE BENEFITS OF OWNER OCCUPATION Patrick N. Troy Urban Research Program Working Paper No. 29 December 1991 SERIES EDITOR: R.C. Coles Urban Research Program Research School of Social Sciences Australian National University ISBN 0 7315 1327 4 GPO Box 4 ISSN 1035-3828 Canberra, ACT, Australia 2601 © Urban Research Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University 1991 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Troy, Patrick N., (Patrick Nicol). (1936) The benefits of owner occupation Bibliography ISBN 0 7315 1327 4 Home - 1. ownership Australia. I. Australian National University. Urban Research Program. II. Title. (Series: Urban Research Program working paper no. 29) ; 363.583 PROGRAM URBAN RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS The Urban Research Program is a part of the reorganised Division of Economics and Politics in the Research School of Social Sciences which came into being in early 1990. Like its precursor, the Urban Research Unit which was established in 1966, carries out studies in the social sciences on Australian it cities. Work undertaken in the Program is multidisciplinary and ranges widely over economic, geographic, historical, sociological, and political aspects of urban and regional structure and development, as well as more general areas of public policy. Working Papers are issued on an occasional basis with the intention of stimulating discussion and making research results quickly and easily available. Most papers will be published in final form elsewhere. In some cases, material will be published which, although of specialist interest, has no ready outlet. Working Papers represent the work of members of the Program or papers presented to a URP-sponsored seminar or conference. In most cases, the Working Papers are Australian in content or relevant to the Australian context. Proposed papers are subject to a preliminary internal review of a committee comprising the Series Editors and the Head of Program. If the review committee deems the papers suitable for possible publication, it is then sent to at least one external assessor for further comment. The views expressed in these papers are those of the authors and not the Urban Research Program. Series Editor: Rita C. Coles 111 IV ABSTRACT In discussing owner occupation in Australia this paper attempts to explain why the level is as high as it is and poses the question of whether it is desirable. The paper starts with a brief history of owner occupation then moves on to discuss the benefits of owner occupation accruing to individuals, the individuals who benefit and the costs they bear. It proceeds to discuss the community benefits and costs flowing from owner occupation followed by consideration of the way in which owner occupation is related to citizenship, the types of dwellings owners have and the factors affecting owner occupation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the prospects for owner occupation and the policy options open to government. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Rita Coles who has tolerated my dilatoriness in the development of this text. I also wish to thank Max Neutze, Peter Williams, Clem Lloyd, Sophie Watson, Mike Harloe, Steve Bourassa, Chris Maher and Meredith Edwards for comment on an earlier draft of this paper. All errors, misunderstandings and misinterpretation my own are work. VI Owner Occupation Owner Occupation The Benefits of Patrick N. Troy Program Urban Research owner occupation has become a commonplace that Australia has a high level of It draw especiaHy, like to and has had for a long period (Table 1). Politicians attention to this fact implying that it is a 'good thing' and indicates that Australia is a society which enjoys a high standard of living and that it is the result of the policies they have introduced. Writing in 1883 Richard Twopeny observed that 'the colonist is very fond of living in his own home on his own bit of ground . He went on to say that building societies and the mortgage system facilitated the achievement of this goal. It wasn^t always like that. why In discussing owner occupation in Australia this paper attempts to explain the level is as high as it is and pose the question of whether it is desirable. Tlie paper starts with a brief history of owner occupation then moves on to discuss who the benefits of owner occupation accruing to individuals, the individuals benefit and the costs they bear. It proceeds to discuss the community benefits and way costs flowing from owner occupation followed by consideration of the in which owner occupation is related to citizenship, the types of dwellings owners have and the factors affecting owner occupation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the prospects for owner occupation and the policy options open to government. Owner Occupation a History - When Australia was first settled an attempt was made by the governors to keep control of the town centres (Connell and Irving 1980). Early in the nineteenth century Governor Macquarie conceded that this policy produced great inequality in standards of housing and urban land was granted and sold in the various colonial towns by colonial administrations thereby creating the great Australian sport of property speculation. When the land was granted it was allocated according to the wealth of the grantee. Those of small means were not allocated land although the promise of eventual ownership was held out as a spur to industry and thrift. In the expanding colonial economies there were sufficient examples of artisans and craftsmen who 'made good' to lend credence to these aspirations. Sydney had many examples of successful tradesmen who built a house then sold it to raise the capital who to repeat the exercise or built several houses in a terrace, lived in one then sold the others to pay for their own (Kelly 1978, 1982). Apart from the gracious houses of the successful merchants dwellings were generally of a low standard. 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