Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:24:10.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Meeting the income needs of older people in East Asia: using housing equity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2011

JOHN DOLING  and
RICHARD RONALD
JOHN DOLING*
Affiliation:
Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
RICHARD RONALD
Affiliation:
Urban Studies, Department of Geography, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of Housing and Interior Design, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
*
Address for correspondence: John Doling, Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. E-mail: J.F.Doling@bham.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the welfare systems of East Asian countries, the income, care and other needs of older people have traditionally been met less by state social protection measures and more by the family, supported by what might be termed the first homeownership strategy: widening access to home ownership as a physical, emotional and financial basis of family wellbeing. Recent political, economic and demographic developments, however, have undermined this model. Examining policy responses in the three most advanced East Asian economies, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but also with reference to Taiwan, the paper identifies common tendencies in the ways in which the ability to use home ownership has been strengthened. As a second strategy, home ownership has been used to reduce geographical constraints on family support, while, as a third strategy, governments have introduced mechanisms through which older people are able to realise some or all of the equity they have built up through the housing market. These mechanisms include, moving down market or even converting to a rental solution, as well as forms of reverse-mortgage products, some available through private financial institutions and some involving state-organised and state-operated devices.

Keywords

familyreverse mortgagehousing equityhome ownership
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , April 2012 , pp. 471 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atsumi, N. 2001. Shakai hosho zaigen toshiteno sozoku shisan no katsuyo [Utilization of Inheritance Assets as Social Security Resources]. Fuji Research Institute Corporation Study Report, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Bonoli, G. and Shinkawa, T. (eds) 2005. Ageing and Pension Reform Around the World: Evidence from Eleven Countries. Edwin Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Building Centre of Japan. 2008. A Quick Look at Housing in Japan. Sixth edition, Building Centre of Japan, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office. 2005. Kokumin Seikatsu Hakusho [Government White Paper on the National Lifestyle]. National Printing Bureau, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Choi, Y. J. 2007. Coming to a Standstill: A New Theoretical Idea of East Asian Welfare Regimes. Barnet Papers in Social Research, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Chou, K. L., Chow, N. W. S. and Chi, I. 2006. Willingness to consider applying for reverse mortgage in Hong Kong Chinese middle-aged homeowners. Habitat International, 30, 716–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chua, B. H. 2003. Maintaining housing values under the condition of universal homeownership. Housing Studies, 18, 3, 765–80.Google Scholar
Department of Budget Accounting and Statistics. 2003. Taipei City Government Statistical Summary. Department of Budget Accounting and Statistics, Taipei.Google Scholar
Doling, J. 1999. Housing policies and the Little Tigers: how do they compare with the other industrialised countries. Housing Studies, 14, 2, 229–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doling, J. 2002. The south and east Asian housing policy model. In Agus, M. R., Doling, J. and Lee, D. S. (eds), Housing Policy Systems in South and East Asia. Palgrave, Basingstoke, UK, 178–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Forrest, R. S. and Izuhara, M. 2009. Exploring the demographic location of housing wealth in East Asia. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 2, 2, 209–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, I. and Kharas, H. 2009. Gravity and friction in growing East Asia. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 25, 2, 190–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groves, R., Murie, A. and Watson, C. 2007. Housing and the New Welfare State: Examples from East Asia and Europe. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK.Google Scholar
Hirayama, Y. 2010. The role of home ownership in Japan's aged society. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 10, 2, 175–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, I. 2000. Productivist welfare capitalism: social policy in East Asia. Political Studies, 48, 706–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Housing and Development Board (HDB) 2010. Lease Buyback Scheme to benefit more elderly HDB households. Press release, Housing and Development Board, Singapore, 5 March.Google Scholar
Huang, J. 2010. Reverse mortgage scheme has merit. Taiwan Today, 9 April. Available online at http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=98146&cctNode=426 [Accessed 22 April 2010].Google Scholar
Izuhara, M. 2007. Turning stock into cash flow: strategies using housing assets in an ageing society. In Hirayama, Y. and Ronald, R. (eds), Housing and Social Transition in Japan. Routledge, London, 94–113.Google Scholar
Jacobs, D. 1998. Social Welfare Systems in East Asia: A Comparative Analysis Including Private Welfare. CASE/10, Centre for Analysis of Social Welfare, LSE, London.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. A. 1982. Miti and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975. Charles E. Tuttle, Tokyo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, C. 1993. The Pacific challenge: Confucian welfare states. In Jones, C. (ed.), New Perspectives on the Welfare State in Europe. Routledge, London, 198–217.Google Scholar
Kasza, G. J. 2006. One World of Welfare: Japan in Comparative Perspective. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) 2008. 2008 Annual Report. Korea Housing Finance Corporation, Seoul.Google Scholar
Kwon, H.-J. 2005. The East Asian Welfare Model: Welfare Orientalism and the State. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Land and Housing Corporation 2009. Act on the Construction of Bogeumjari Housing. Land and Housing Corporation, Seongnam, South Korea.Google Scholar
Lee, J. 2008. Productivism, developmentalism and the shaping of urban order: integrating public housing and social security in Singapore. Urban and Policy Research, 26, 3, 271–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, K. L. 2001. Implications of Singapore's CPT scheme on consumption choices and retirement. Pacific Economic Review, 6, 361–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, D., Mitchell, O. and Piggott, J. 2002. Asset rich and cash poor: retirement provision and housing policy in Singapore. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 1, 3, 197–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Government and Home Affairs 2005. Domestic Report. Ministry of Government and Home Affairs, Seoul.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare 2005. Shakai Fukushi: Seikatsu [Social Welfare and Public Assistance]. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport 2007. Fudosan no Shoken-ka Jitta Chousa [Survey of Real Estate Securitisation]. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2009. Economic Survey of Japan 2009: Financial Stability: Overcoming the Crisis and Improving the Efficiency of the Banking Sector. Available online at http://www.oecd.org/document/3/0,3343,en_33873108_33873539_43783491_1_1_1_1,00.html.Google Scholar
Park, B.-H. and Lee, H.-O. 2007. A comparative study on housing welfare policies for the elderly between Korea and Japan – focused on the elderly who can live independently. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 1, 1, 90–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, I. 2004. Post industrial pressures, political regime shifts and social policy reform in Japan and South Korea. Journal of East Asian Studies, 4, 47–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronald, R. 2007. Comparing homeowner societies: can we construct an East–West model? Housing Studies, 22, 4, 473–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronald, R. 2008. Between investment, asset and use consumption: the meaning of home ownership in Japan. Housing Studies, 23, 2, 233–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronald, R. and Jin, M. Y. 2010. Home ownership in South Korea: examining sector underdevelopment. Urban Studies, 47, 11, 2367–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shinkawa, T. 2005. The politics of pension reform in Japan: institutional legacies, credit claiming and blame avoidance. In Bonoli, G. and Shinkawa, T. (eds), Ageing and Pension Reform Around the World: Evidence from Eleven Countries. Edwin Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.Google Scholar
UN. 2001. UN World Population Ageing 1950–2050. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
Uzuhashi, T. K. 2001. Japan: bidding farewell to the welfare society. In Alcock, P. and Craig, G. (eds), International Social Policy. Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, 104–23.Google Scholar
Walker, A. and Wong, C. K. 2005. East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
White, G. and Goodman, R. 1998. Welfare orientalism and the search for an East Asian welfare model. In Goodman, R., Kwon, H. and White, G. (eds), The East Asian Welfare Model. Routledge, London, 3–24.Google Scholar
Yoo, I. and Koo, I. 2008. Do Children Support Their Parents’ Application for the Reverse Mortgage? A Korean Case. KDI School of Public Policy and Management Working Paper Series 08-03. Available online at http://www.kdtschool.ac.kr/faculty/paper-asp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar