# Houses and the UK economy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/houses-and-the-uk-economy/354270>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 26, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/houses-and-the-uk-economy/354270 "2006-04-26T10:59:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/houses-and-the-uk-economy/354270/1 "2006-04-26T10:59:04Z")

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I’m sure I posted this on another thread, but I don’t seem to be able to find it, so I’ll ask again.

I’ve read here and there that the UK economy is strongly related to the housing market. Compared to the rest of the EU, a higher proportion of UK citizens like to own their own property as opposed to renting it.

If there was some sort of dramatic change in the UK, I was thinking along the lines of a higher proportion of people renting instead of buying, what would happen to the economy, would it suffer dramatically?

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**Author:** ![Fridgemagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@Fridgemagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fridgemagnet)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/houses-and-the-uk-economy/354270/2 "2006-04-26T11:21:32Z")

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I’ve heard that a high level of home ownership tends to stifle an economy a bit, as it makes the workforce less flexible. The Swiss are quite prosperous, but mostly rent. Here’s [short treatise](http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:M17KbbIVIoMJ:www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/oswald/timesrentingnov2004.pdf+switzerland+home+ownership&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=3) on home ownership and economic effects thereof.