Steve, You miss the point, the sweeping change from a country that was heading to an economy based on financial services needed ready made customers in the form of borrowers from an organically driven base. There is nothing wrong with people owning their own homes but why were Local Authorities stopped from reinvesting in the former social housing structure they had just sold off. It was this new money that was bank rolling Thatcher in the form of Debt. Very few people buy their homes for cash. What did happen was before the eventual bubble burst, those with access to finance by whatever means were building substantial portfolios of property for the rental market ? This then led to a further strain on the social housing sector.