Housing Based Welfare: Risks and Implications of Release of Housing Wealth to Support Retirement Income

The project focuses on the future role of housing as an asset for supplementing retirement income, sometimes called asset- (housing-) based welfare (ABW). The interest in this subject is motivated by the process of population ageing. The partial shift from public to private welfare provision is assumed to take place due to unsustainable public pay-as-you-go pension schemes; and housing wealth forms the major part of European households’ wealth. However, the future consequences of ABW on social inequalities among the elderly and social inequalities in general (as a result of changes in inter-generational solidarity ), as well as efficiency and sustainability of ABW itself for future generations against alternative housing market trends, are empirically unexplored in recent research. Situation in post-socialist societies has remained wholly outside the scope of existing research. This project aims to fill in these gaps in existing research, by applying both qualitative research and microsimulation and agent-based modelling.