Title Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Security and insecurity aspects of home ownership - A cross-country analysis -- Introduction -- The importance of home ownership for individuals and society at large -- Security and insecurity aspects of home ownership -- Structure of the book -- Housing and finance markets and the institutional context in Europe -- Introduction -- Demography: trends and prospects -- Labour markets and social security -- Institutional context -- Housing markets -- Finance markets -- A cross-country comparison -- Home ownership and economic transition - Hungary as a case study -- Introduction -- Macroeconomic changes and changes in the welfare regimes -- The tenure structure of the housing stock in Central and Eastern European countries -- Housing markets in Hungary and other Central and Eastern European countries -- Conclusion -- The social dimension of home ownership - Who is getting in and who is staying out? -- Introduction -- Tenure choice: theoretical background and literature review -- Tenure choice: an empirical test using Swedish data -- Home ownership in Europe: who are the owners and what are the economic conditions? -- Changes in home ownership across Europe -- Conclusion -- Home ownership and labour market participation of younger people -- Introduction -- The life-cycle consumption hypothesis -- Tenure choice, equity and employment of younger households in Sweden -- Younger women, home ownership and labour force participation -- Conclusions -- Early retirement and home ownership -- Introduction -- Income sources of pensioners and the labour market of older employees in European countries -- Pension systems in European countries -- Retirement decisions -- Macroeconomic model of early retirement behaviour -- Microeconomic analysis of early retirement behaviour -- Conclusion.

Home ownership, self-employment and investment -- Introduction -- Self-employment, investment and capital market failures -- Self-employment and home ownership -- Investment and home ownership -- Conclusion -- Privatisation of the housing stock in Hungary -- Introduction -- Privatisation of the Hungarian housing stock: aims and outcomes -- Policy and institutional changes -- Factors affecting home ownership -- The consequences of privatisation -- Summary and conclusions -- Insecurity aspects of home ownership -- Introduction -- Repayment risk of European home owners: the influence of economic and institutional factors -- An analysis of households with mortgage arrears -- Discussion -- The social limits to growth - The security and insecurity aspects of home ownership -- Introduction -- Discussion of main findings -- What are the (social) limits to home ownership? -- Directions for further research -- References -- Contributors.