Modelling The Take Up Of Low Cost Home Ownership Products In The Uk

There are growing issues of access and affordability to owner-occupation in the UK and in most other industrialised countries. The UK has led the way in developing a range of Low Cost Home Ownership schemes that provide different ways of assisting particular groups of households. Each employs different mechanisms with respect to the source of housing supply, the available finance, the target groups of households and the nature and extent of subsidy provided. It is important to understand both their distinct intended impacts and the actual outcomes. This paper looks at two wellestablished low cost homeownership products in the UK and focuses on identifying who buys and what variables are most important in determining takeup of the different schemes. Our research objectives are: to identify the factors that influence take-up of the two products; to investigate whether the decision to take up the products depends on household attributes, affordability, supply, relative user costs between tenures or other factors; to examine whether there are differences in the factors affecting take-up between regions and therefore between different types of housing market; and to assess whether take-up is in line with government objectives. To achieve the objectives, two tenure models, Shared Ownership and Homebuy, have been developed and binary logistic regression models were used. The findings suggest that the two products serve different purposes. The major factors directly affecting take up mainly relate to household attributes and to housing market issues. Thus take-up differs both between schemes and regions.