Legal financial instruments to promote savings for the access to owned housing

Abstract

This work suggests some reflections about the traditional financial formula of savings and credit aimed to get access to home ownership and invites to explore different legal-financial instruments of comparative and domestic law through which the property can also be acquired, and even with an added value. Although it is possible to get access to housing through different options, in Spain, in fact, property-owned housing has become the predominant form of access, either by active promotion of public policies focused on this form of tenancy or by families' own decision. Housing is an expensive asset, so its acquisition requires significant savings and in the vast majority of cases mortgage financing. However, the lack of savings becomes an obstacle on the way to homeownership and for this reason, is necessary to seek different savings incentive programs and legal instruments such as programmed savings accounts, leasing to purchase, home leasing, shared ownership and temporary ownership in order to highlight their benefits as options aimed to facilitate access to owned property following a responsible credit scheme and avoiding family over-indebtedness. In conclusions, we suggest some recommendations.