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Since the Thatcher years that is how many Brits view property ownership. Unfortunately that means we pretty much broke social provision; without actually having the kind of build and buy capacity you have over there to pick up the slack.
The other downside of course is that if property ownership is a basic freedom and sign of stability (and even of maturity in terms of lifecycle) then that encourages people who can't actually afford to buy a house to explore and utilise insecure mortgages.
House prices over here skyrocketed as a result. Though the bubble burst and the housing market 'crashed' it never went down to anything like previous levels. The average age of a first time buyer is now pushing late 30s. And without social housing London would be inhabited exclusively by the wealthy and those few working class who managed to buy houses before the values soared and didn't then sell them to speculators.
I really don't want to live in a society in which the wealthy inhabit one city and those who service them travel in from another.
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