Mortgage finance across OECD countries

Frank van Hoenselaar, Boris Cournède, Federica De Pace and Volker Ziemann

No 1693, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The landscapes of housing loan markets vary considerably across OECD countries, reflecting differences in preferences and policy settings. This paper first draws a topography of disparities in mortgage structure, documenting considerable variation across OECD countries in key features such as in use of fixed vs variable interest rates and typical maturities. The paper then discusses policies that can influence these outcomes. It highlights the scope for encouraging inclusive access to housing through tax-and-spending programmes that are neutral between renting and owning rather than through often very costly tax advantages for mortgage borrowing. The paper finally proposes a novel indicator to measure the balance between the rights of borrowers and lenders. Mortgage markets are deepest in countries where the index shows that creditor and borrower rights are balanced rather than severely tilted to one side.

Keywords: finance; housing; mortgage markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 R21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-isf and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1693-en

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