Couple of points:

• mortgages are extending into retirement: in one scheme I've looked at, you can take out a mortgage at 90 years of age for 35 years! Reasons for this include the 600,000 people who will have negative equity when their mortgage period ends in 2020; but also, money tied up in an asset (or savings) is not joining the consumer money-go-round economy.
• I don't know why I'm paying money on a mortgage to own an asset I neither need nor want at the end of it. I would prefer to rent, but renting is so insecure: two months notice and you're homeless.
• if I have got to pay a mortgage, I'd prefer to pay a smaller mortgage on a smaller property, but very few suitable properties are available (hundreds of loft apartments with no garden or even a balcony, although there is often a swimming pool in the basement) and none in the areas where I have my social networks and connections.
• just noticing the parallels between financial institutions and blockchains creating money and the comparative acceptability to people of each option.
• sadly, I think that a large proportion of ex-social housing has ended in the hands of buy to let investors.
• on the other hand, there are some interesting initiatives around social investment in housing - we have a special housing themed meeting on Thursday with the GLA's housing department and two social investment organisations.
• of course, the anarchist communists have strong views on land theft 😎.
  Good post, thank you.