The HOUWEL research project at the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam looks he changing role of housing and homeownership in different European contexts and its increasing centrality in investment, security and welfare strategies.

With this video, they show the findings of their research project focused on housing markets and welfare state transformations. Results show that in the last two decades, both house prices and private home ownership have grown dramatically transforming the role and meaning of ‘home’. For many, having most of their financial equity in their home has increased feelings of security, however, the intensified commodification of the home has undermined access to housing, enhanced debt and stimulated new patterns of inequality and financial instability.