Chapter 3: Women and Housing Assets

Introduction
This section of the report is concerned with exploring the housing circumstances of
respondents in both countries and the potential for asset accumulation. It outlines thetenure structure in both countries and then goes on to look at aspects of mortgages forowner occupation, types of ownership, levels of responsibility for paying the
mortgage and dimensions of sole and joint mortgages. There is some difficulty inproviding comparable data and analysis in the latter sections of this chapter due to theunevenness of data and categories cross-nationally. However, these results inthemselves are revealing and will be discussed in the conclusion.
TenureIn 2000 in Britain 68 per cent of the housing stock was owner-occupied, ten per cent
was in the private rented sector, 15 per cent was in the local authority sector and six
per cent was provided by housing associations. The dominance of owner occupation
has been boosted over the years through policy measures such as mortgage interesttax relief (recently abolished), Right to Buy (sales of council housing) and a declining
level of investment in social housing. Whilst the notion of home ownership as the‘natural’ tenure of choice has been promoted by governments and is widely accepted
ideology in British society, the social rented sector has become increasingly
stigmatised. In Japan too, according to Ronald (2004) home ownership ‘has become
fundamental to both the mechanics of the modern housing system, and the norm of
housing consumption and tenure relations (p55)’, with just over 60 per cent of thetotal stock owner occupied. This is despite the slump in property and land values
experienced since the economic crisis in the 1990. According to a recent report by the
Tokyo Metropolitan government, the average price of a flat in a new condominium inTokyo in 2004 was ¥44.6 million, a fall of one per cent in value from 2002. However,
it is still the case that the ratio of the average condominium price to the averageannual income of workers is 5.9.

－ 9 －The private rented sector plays a more prominent role in Japan than in Britain
with 27 per cent of the housing stock privately rented and four per cent classified ascompany houses. Local government public rented properties accounted for only five
per cent, and public corporation rented properties two per cent of the total stock.
Turning to the survey data, in the British sample sixty per cent of respondents were
homeowners, slightly less that the national average. Out of the home-owning female
sample, the majority (56 per cent) owned a mortgaged property. Compared with thenational data on female tenure states (Table 3.1), the skewered distribution between
those who owned their property outright and those buying through a mortgage wasmainly due to the exclusion of the older age group (aged 55 years and over).
Following on from this, and as might be expected, it was the older age group of
respondents (45-54) that was most likely to own outright (65 per cent; 64 women),compared to 25 per cent (25 women) for those aged 35-44, and ten per cent (tenwomen) for those aged between 25-34. Of the 99 respondents owning their own
property outright 60 per cent (59 women) had achieved this by paying off theirmortgage, which again was most prevalent amongst those respondents aged between
45-54, and 12 per cent from the proceeds from the sale of a previous home. Thirteen
per cent had acquired their home through either a gift or loan from family or friend, or
inheritance of either money or property.
Table 3.1: Tenure status in Britain

Sample (GB)#s(%)
National (%)

Ownoutright

Buying on
mortgage

Rentedfromcouncil

99
10
28

558
56
29

173
17
23

RentedRentedfromfromhousing
privateassociation landlord
53
5
9

93
9
11

Other

Total

22
2

998
99
100

Sources: National date from General Household Survey 2000 (GB) tenure by sex ofhousehold reference person－ 10 －

Table 3.2: Tenure status in Japan

Sample#%National%Own
outright(respond
ents
name orjoint)

Buyingonmortgage(respond
ents
name orjoint)

Owned(mortgage
statusunknown)(respondents name orjoint)

Owned
outright(name ofpartner)

Buyingonmortgage(name ofpartner)Owned(mortgage
statusunknown)(name ofpartner)Ownedbyparentorrelative

65
3.0

133
6.2

25
1.2

233
10.8

418
19.4

136
6.3

525
24.4

60.3
Rentedfrom private
landlord

Rented fromlocal
government/pu
blic corporation

Total

529
24.5
27.3

91
4.2
6.8

2155
100.0

There is no national data available in Japan that disaggregates by gender. However,according to table 3.2, the survey reveals that 46 per cent (1,010 women) of
respondents classified themselves as owner occupiers, slightly below the national
figure for Japan, and a smaller proportion of home owners than in the English sample.
A striking difference amongst home owning respondents relates to whether or not
woman with partners (most likely to be married in Japan) were identified officially ashome owners. Only 233 women (ten per cent) from the entire sample owned aproperty in their own name or jointly with a partner, with 787 women (36 per cent)from the sample owning outright or buying a property with a mortgage in theirpartner’s name.
Of those respondents identified as home owners only three per cent (65women) owned outright either in their own name or jointly with their partner, with 11
per cent (233 women) owning outright in the name of the partner. As is the case with
the British cohort those who had paid outright for their property were most likely tofall into the 45-54 age group (30 per cent), with ten per cent (77 women) in the 35-44
age group and 1.8 per cent (13 women) in the 25-34 age group.

Of the 298

respondents owning their own property outright 46 per cent had achieved this throughinheritance or a gift from family or friends (compared to only 13 per cent of the
English sample), whilst 43 per cent had achieved this by paying off their mortgage. A－ 11 －

category emerging in the Japanese sample but not in the British sample was one that
included those respondents living in a property owned by a parent or relative.
Twenty-four per cent (525) of respondents fell into this category and they were most
likely to be in the 25-34 age group (34 per cent, 253 respondents). Twenty-two percent (169) of those living in a property owned by a parent or relative were in the 3544 age group, and 17 per cent (123) were aged between 45 and 54. It has also been
estimated that around 85 per cent of working, single women aged 20-34 in Japan live
at home with their parents (Atoh, Kandia and Ivanov 2004).
Mortgage
Types of mortgage
From the 657 British home-owning sample, 558 women (85 per cent) were buying
their property through a mortgage.

The main type of mortgage held by the

respondents was a repayment mortgage (66 per cent), with 27 per cent of respondents
holding an interest only endowment mortgage. However, there is some variation
across age groups. Of those aged between 25 and 34, 78 per cent (146) held arepayment mortgage and 12 per cent (23) an interest only endowment mortgage,compared to 54 per cent (92) of those aged between 45 and 54 with a repayment
mortgage and 41 per cent (71) with an interest only endowment mortgage. This canbe partly explained by the promotion of Interest only Endowment mortgages byfinancial institutions and advisors in the 1980s and their subsequent popularity andreputation as better value for money. However, this was followed in the 1990s by
revelations of miss selling by prominent financial companies and financial advisers
and the realisation that the vast majority of endowment mortgages were going to fail
to cover the cost of the outstanding loan.

Since the mid-1990s Interest only

Endowment mortgages have declined in popularity and repayment mortgages havebecome the most common form of mortgage amongst owner occupiers. Amongst oursample, of those women who were single 74 per cent (31) had a repayment mortgage,as did 66 per cent (300) or those married or living together and 66 per cent (37) of
those divorced, widowed or separated.
The Japanese data on mortgages indicates that only 38 women had mortgages
at the time of interviews that is a significant minority compared with their British
counterparts. Table 3.3 indicates that of the women who had mortgages on their own
at the point of purchase, the vast majority relied on private financial institutions and－ 12 －

particularly the Government Housing Loan Corporation, rather than a loan from theiremployers (whish is more likely for male core workers). Table 3.4 shows that this isconsistent across all age groups.
Table 3.3: Women with sole mortgages by types of mortgage held in Japan
Private financial institutions
The Government Housing Loan
Corporation
Loan from the employers
Pension residence# of samples
29
33

%
52
59

10
3

18
5

* multiple answers
Table 3.4: Women with sole mortgages by types of mortgage and age in Japan
Private financial institutions
The Government Housing Loan
Corporation
Loan from the employers
Pension residence

25-34
6
4

35-44
11
15

45-54
12
14

1
0

6
3

3
0

*multiple answer

Ownership arrangements
In Britain, it is most likely that women living in mortgaged property will either hold asole mortgage or have a joint mortgage. Of the 558 women in the British sample who
were buying their property through a mortgage 429 women (76 per cent) who have ajoint mortgage and 116 women (21 per cent) who are the sole mortgage lender on
their current dwelling. In Japan the circumstances of ownership are more complex(see tables 3.5 and 3.6) with the ownership of housing and land often separated, andthe extent to which women are the sole or even joint owner is much less common thatin Britain. In Japan, ownership by the husband alone is the most common pattern ofownership across all age categories (718 out of 978). This is followed by ownershipby women with husband which is the second most common arrangement for housepurchase across all age groups. In a significant minority of cases inter-generational
ownership is apparent from the data (44) whereby the husband owns the property withthe parents (could be either women’s or husband’s parents). Some women (68) were
included as owners (jointly with husband) without their own or joint mortgage. Thisis mainly due to their contribution of cash deposit from their savings at the time of
housing purchase. One-third contributed more than £25,000 (including nine women－ 13 －

over £50,000) while 37 women contributed between £10-20,000. The typical patternof women’s employment (the rates drop after marriage and child-rearing) and thus theirregularity of income make it difficult for women to access mortgages. However,those who made cash contributions to deposits tend to own a smaller share of housing(31 per cent owned less than 25 per cent of housing; 27 per cent 25-49 per cent; 31
per cent owned 50 per cent) than those who made it to ownership through mortgage(37 per cent owned a half of the housing and 26 per cent owned 51-100 per cent). On
the other hand, there were some women (169) who made cash contributions todeposits but did not become a joint home-owner. Their contributions tended to besmaller as over 40 per cent paid less than £10,000.
Table 3.5: Women’s ownership of housing (dwellings) in Japan

25-34
35-44
45-54
Total

Women
only

Husbandonly

Parents
only

Women withhusband

3
9
19
31

110
283
325
718

1
2
3
6

25
64
66
155

Women
with
parents05
38

Husbandwithparents
6
19
19
44

Husbandwithparents
4
14
10
28

Couplewithparents0
1
1
2

Couplewithparents00
7
7Table 3.6: Women’s ownership of land in Japan

25-34
35-44
45-54
Total

Women
only

Husband
only

1
7
19
27

80
195
252
527

Women
with
husband
16
45
41
102

Women
with
parents
0
2
8
10

Joint and sole mortgage owners
Since the figures vary enormously between countries, comparisons are difficult to
make.

However, concentrating on the British data there were no significant

differences across the three age brackets although the middle age bracket (35-44)
included slightly more women (79 per cent) who held a joint mortgage compared withthe other two age brackets (74 per cent in 25-34 and 76 per cent in 45-54). Not
surprisingly, marital status strongly determined the likelihood of joint-mortgage
ownership as 90 per cent of the married/cohabiting sample (408 women) had a joint
mortgage while only six single women (15 per cent of the single sample) did (Table
3.7).

－ 14 －

Table 3.7: Marital status and joint/sole mortgage in Britain
Married / living
together408
Joint mortgage
31
Sole mortgage

SingleDivorced/widowed/separated

6
34

8
48

Table 3.8: Marital status and joint/sole mortgage in Japan
Joint mortgage
Sole mortgage

Married24
7

Never married0
2

Divorced
04

Widowed0
1

From the Japanese sample women with a mortgage were most likely to be married
and to have a joint mortgage (24 women). Those with a sole mortgage were also most
likely to be married (7 women) or divorced (4 women) (Table 3.8). When we look at
the age breakdown in the 25-34 age group, three women had a sole mortgage and foura joint mortgage, in the 35-44 age category the figures were four and twelve and in
the 45-54 category the figures were seven and eight. The trend from this survey
appears to indicate that there has been little change in the nature of owner occupation
for women and it is still a tenure achieved through marriage or attachment to a malepartner.
With whom were the women jointly responsible for paying their mortgage? In
the British sample the overwhelming majority (403 women; 94 per cent) mentioned
their partner, while only five per cent (22 women) and one per cent (two women)
mentioned relative and friend(s), respectively. The legal status of the joint ownership,for example whether the women had ‘joint tenancy’ or ‘tenancy in common’ with
their mortgage partner, was considered beyond the scope of the survey and was not
explored.
Table 3.9 shows that over half of the respondents felt they were responsiblefor 50 per cent of the joint mortgage while 127 women (30 per cent) felt a
responsibility of up to 25 per cent and five per cent (23 women) had almost total
responsibility (76-100 per cent). Looking at the data in Table 3.10 among those who
felt they were 50 per cent responsible, only 155 women (69 per cent) were engaged infull-time work and their earnings varied with the largest percentages of the women(42 per cent) earning an income between £10,000-19,999. Eleven women (five percent) were staying at home or not seeking work at the time of the interview. The－ 15 －

income levels of the women reasonably correspond with the level of the responsibility
they felt apart from the women in the highest income bracket. For example, 47 percent of the women earning less than £5,000 were contributing 0-25 per cent towards
their joint mortgage, while 67 per cent of those who were earning income both
£20,000-£29,999 and £30,000-£39,999 were contributing a half of their mortgage.
The pattern is not consistent in the highest income group. The perceptions of thewomen who ‘feel’ responsible toward mortgage repayment do not howevernecessarily correlate to their actual cash contribution to the repayment.
Table 3.9: Proportion of the mortgage the women were responsible for by age
and employment status in Britain
Total

127 (30%)
0-25%
14 (3%)
26-49%
224 (52%)50%
7 (2%)
51-75%
23 (5%)
76-100%34 (9%)
Don’t
know/other
Total

25-34

Age
35-44

45-54

38
4
74
2
8
11

45
6
85
3
10
11

44
5
65
1
5
11

429 (100%) 138 (32%) 160 (37%) 130 (30%)

Employment Status
Full-time Part-time At home/notseeking
work
51
43
29
11
3
0
155
48
11
4
1
1
10
6
3
13
12
6
244

114

Other

50

Table 3.10: Proportion of the mortgage the women were responsible for byincome in Britain

0-25%
26-49%
50%
51-75%
76-100%Don’tknow/other
Total

Up to
£4999
31
1
26
5
3

£5000£9999
28
1
33
1
4
9

67

75

Income£10000- £20000£19999£29999
35
7
10
79
23
1
6
4
12
143

34

£30000- £40000+£39999
6
6
20

8

1
2

2

29

16

The responses of the 24 women who had a mortgage are detailed in table 3.11. This
sample is very small and not really comparable with the British sample of 429 women
who had joint mortgages. The size of the sample could be related to the inability tocapture the experience of working women in urban areas, or it could indeed be thecase that Japanese women rely on their husband to meet their housing needs. Given－ 16 －

6
1
12
0
6
3
28

the very low and static divorce rate the expectation remains that this is a lifetime
commitment. Despite the very small sample size the majority of women (eight: 33
per cent) felt they were responsible for 50 per cent of the mortgage. Table 3.11
indicates that the majority of women with some responsibility were in paid work,
although five women were without jobs yet claimed responsibility for a proportion of
the mortgage.
Table 3.11: Proportion of the mortgage the women were responsible for by age
and employment status in Japan
Total
25-34

Age
35-44

45-54

0-25%
26-49%
50%
51-75%
76-100%Don’tknow/other5(21%)
4(17)
8(33)
2(8)
1(4)
4(17)

1
1
0
1
0
1

1
1
7
1
0
2

3
2
1
0
1
1

Total

24(100%)4

128

Employment Status
Full-time Irregular
SelfWithout
worker employedjob(parttime,
temp)
3
1
1
0
2
1
0
1
6
0
1
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
1
0
2
14

3

3

Table 3.12: Proportion of the mortgage women were responsible for by income
in Japan

0-25%
26-49%
50%
51-75%
76-100%Don’tknow/other
Total

IncomeNo income £50-£6450 £6450£10000£10000£15000
0
2
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
3

4

0

3

£15000- £20000+£20000
1
2
0
1
1
4
1
1
0
1
0
2
3

11

Sole mortgage owner
In Britain marital status is an important indicator since eighty percent of single
women (34 women) with a mortgage and 85 per cent of those who were divorced,
widowed or separated (48 women) had a mortgage on their current dwelling on theirown, compared with only seven per cent of the married/cohabiting women (31women) with a mortgage. In Japan, only 14 women from the entire sample had a sole
－ 17 －

4mortgage. They were most likely to be married (7 women) or divorced (four women).
The characteristics of the sole owners in Britain were as follows:

Age of sole mortgage owners were evenly spread among a sample of 116 inthis category, 41 women were in the 25-34 age bracket; 39 in 35-44; and 36 in
45-54’;



Seventy-nine per cent of them had full-time work and a further 11 per centworked part-time. Only five women were at home or not seeking work;

31 women (27 per cent) were in the £10,000-£19,999 income bracket; 21
women (18 per cent) were in the £20,000-£29,999 income bracket; and afurther 22 women (19 per cent) in the over £30,000 bracket. The sole owners
were in proportion earning higher incomes than those who owned theirproperty jointly;

49 (out of 116 women) had dependent children; andAlmost all the women (115) were white.

Conclusion
This section of the report has considered the housing circumstances of women in
Japan and Britain. Whilst tenure structures are somewhat similar to the extent thathome ownership is the dominant tenure the data reveals that women’s access to theassets accumulated in land and property ownership varies greatly in Britain and Japan.
Marital status is still an important indicator of housing circumstances in bothcountries. In Japan the majority of married women are likely to be owner-occupiers
but the property is most likely to be in the name of the husband. In Britain it isincreasingly common to have joint mortgages amongst married and co-habiting
couples. In Britain higher rates of divorce, debates regarding women’s equality,changing cultural norms as well as rising house prices have possibly encouraged
women to ‘stake their claim’ in relation to housing. In Japan there appears to havebeen more consistency for women in relation to owner occupation. Although womenare marrying later and have greater opportunity in the workplace it is most likely thatwomen will remain in the parental home until their 30s. Home ownership appears tooccur with marriage with the property most likely to be in the husbands name alone.
Only a small number of women appear to have established either a sole or joint
mortgage.
－ 18 －