Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand some features of the housing market, such as affordability, and decisions to rent or buy, supported by the use of various media, including graphs, tables, news articles, videos and household interviews

• describe different types of housing finance and, with the aid of an interactive tool and relevant calculations, choose between them given some different constraints

• explain, using a simple economic model, how demand and supply affect house prices and discuss the consequences for different types of household

• understand, with the aid of the household financial balance sheet, why housing may be viewed as a store of wealth.