If you talk to a British person about houses, sooner or later you will hear the saying, “An Englishman’s home is his castle.” This expression was first said in 1682 by the great British legal expert, Sir Edward Coke.

But what does this mean? No matter how small or humble his home, a British person considers the place where he lives to be his safe refuge — a place where he can stay undisturbed by the outside world.

Background Information:

An Englishman’s home is his castle     

Like many traditional proverbs this saying seems gender-specific but, of course, it includes women as well. The proverb may say “man” because it was not until the 19th century that many women in Britain or other European countries had property rights. Now, though, as many women own real estate as men do.

Key Words:

Humble: Simple and with only basic equipment or features

Refuge: A place you go to protect yourself from something dangerous or threatening

About seven out of ten British families own their own homes and like to spend lots of time and money on improving their properties. Every weekend you find the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) stores and garden centres crowded with families keen on buying the latest set of power tools or hanging baskets for flowers.

When spring is in the air, British people get particularly excited about new projects for their houses. Over the Easter holidays in March or April lines form at the home improvement stores well before opening time. Last year during just two weeks over the Easter period Homebase, a well-known DIY store, sold 2.4 million pots of paint and 1,440 kilometres of wallpaper. It is now fashionable to be seen to spend money on your house, especially on the outside of your house where other people can see what you have done.

Background Information:

Do-It-Yourself (DIY)     

Since around the 1960s, a whole leisure industry of DIY has grown up in the West, in which large stores sell everything people need to repair and decorate their houses or maintain their gardens and cars. Before that time people would probably employ painters, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, gardeners or mechanics to do the kind of work that needed to be done. Nowadays the trend is for people to do this themselves; this not only saves money, it has become a kind of hobby or leisure activity for many people and DIY stores also sell books or give guidance about how to do the work.

Why are British people so interested in spending money on their homes? One reason is economic. Buying a house is usually the most expensive single purchase that any person will ever make. The average price of a home in Britain was 250,000 pounds in 2014.

Very few people can afford to buy a house outright, for cash, and so they have to take out a loan, called a “mortgage”, from a bank to pay for the house. This loan then needs to be paid back over a long period of time, often twenty-five years.

Given such a large and long investment, it makes sense for people to spend time renovating and extending their property in order to make it worth more money if they sell the house; or to give themselves more space if they continue to live in it.

Key Words:

Purchase: Action of buying something

Outright: Completely and totally

Renovate: To make something old look new again by repairing and improving it, especially a building

Furthermore, house prices have risen spectacularly over the last few years as more people choose to buy, rather than rent, their homes. Property prices have increased by more than 60% since 2005. Another British saying, “safe as houses” reveals their attitude towards investing in property.

 Can this trend towards owning your own property continue? Britain has a long-established base of houses and not much new space to build new ones. Although Britain’s population is not growing very fast, the number of new houses and flats built every year, about 110,000 in the year 2013, is still not quite enough to cater for demand. Consequently, as demand outstrips supply, prices rise.

Background Information:

“safe as houses”

     This saying refers to the fact that investment in property (real estate) is a sound investment and is likely to be safe because house and land prices seem to rise but rarely go down.

Key Words:

Spectacularly: Extremely impressive

Trend: A gradual change or development that produces a particular result

Cater: To provide people with everything they want or need

Outstrip: To become larger than something else

  But another, perhaps more compelling reason for the urge to spend money on the house, is psychological. Dr. John Russell of Bournemouth University says, “The home is of great emotional and cultural significance for people. People try to express themselves in front of others through their houses.”

So houses are not just about bricks and mortar. Homes are about safety and security, warmth and comfort. They are an outward sign of one’s identity, of one’s status and achievements. “Ultimately,” says Dr. Russell, “homes are about a sense of belonging.”

Key Words:

Compelling: Tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument

Bricks and mortar: House, flat, or other building considered as property

Status: Someone’s position in a profession or society, especially compared to other people

Another commentator, Professor Wilma Higgins of Bristol University, thinks that the British obsession with homes began during the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century. “People were uprooted from their rural birthplaces and transplanted to towns where they had to set up new homes and social networks,” says Prof Higgins. In this situation the home became the actual place where people lived rather than the old familial connections.

Key Words:

Obsession: An emotional state in which someone or something is so important to you that you are always thinking about them, in a way that seems extreme to other people

Rural: Relating to the countryside or in the countryside

Familial: Relating to families

Another feature of British homeownership, which is puzzling to many people from other countries, is the desire to “trade up”. This is where people start by buying a small property such as a flat or terraced house and then a few years later when they have got better jobs with more income, sell this and buy a larger place. They may do this a number of times over their lifetime.

For example, in London a young couple may first buy a flat in Clapham or Battersea, in a slightly run-down part of town. Then  they could trade up to a buy a flat in fashionable Fulham or posh Chelsea; and then when they start to bring up a family they may move out to the countryside to a larger house with a garden for the children to play in.

“Trading up”, then, is not just about selling and buying property but about climbing a ladder of social status. You may be judged by the house in which you live.

Key Word:

Run-down: In bad condition because no one has spent money on repairs

For British people, being “houseproud” is also about being proud of themselves. Where you live is an important statement about who you are.

如果你和一个英国人谈论住宅，迟早你会听到这样的说法，“英国人的家即是他的城堡。” 这句话是1682年英国伟大的法学家爱德•科克最早说的。

但这是什么意思呢？无论一个英国人的家多么狭小、简陋，他都会把自己居住的地方当成安全的庇护所——一个他可以停留而不受外界打扰的地方。

大约十分之七的英国家庭拥有自己的住宅，且喜欢花大量的时间和金钱改善其设施。每个周末你都会发现自助商店及园艺中心挤满了热衷于购买最新的电器或悬吊式花盆的家庭。

当空气里弥漫着春天的气息时，英国人就会对新的房屋改进工程备感兴奋。在3月或4月的复活节期间，家居改善商店开门之前就有人早早去排队。去年仅在复活节的两周期间，Homebase——一家著名的自助商店，就卖出了240万桶涂料和1440公里墙纸。现在，让人看见你花钱整理住宅，尤其是住宅外部别人看得见劳动成果的地方，是件非常时髦的事。

为什么英国人如此热衷于花钱整理房子呢？其中一个原因是经济上的。购买房屋通常是一个人最昂贵的一次购买行为。2014年英国一幢房屋的平均价格是25万英镑。

很少有人能一次性付清现款买房，因此他们必须从银行贷款，叫做抵押贷款，以支付房款。这笔贷款要在较长时期内还清，通常25年。 

由于是这样一项长期而巨大的投资，人们有理由花时间修整和扩建其房产，以便出售时卖价更高，继续居住时空间更大。

此外，由于更多的人选择买房而不是租房，在过去的几年中，房价的上涨令人瞩目。2005年以来，房地产价格上涨了60％以上。英国的另一句俗语，“像房子一样安全”就揭示出人们对于购置房地产的态度。 

拥有自己的房产这一潮流是否能继续呢？英国建造房屋的历史悠久，能建新房的地方不多。尽管英国人口增长不快，但每年新建房屋和公寓的数量（在2013年是11万套）仍不能完全满足需要。由于供不应求，所以价格上涨了。

然而另外一个或许更令人信服的急于花钱买房的原因是心理上的。伯恩茅斯大学的约翰• 拉塞尔博士说：“房屋对于人们来说有着巨大的情感和文化意义。人们试图通过房屋在他人面前表达自己。”

因此房屋不再只是砖头和灰泥。房屋关系到安全和保障，温暖和舒适。它们是一个人身份、地位、成就的外在标志。“最终，”拉塞尔博士说，“房屋关系到一种归属感。”

      另一位评论家，布里斯托尔大学的威尔马•希金斯教授认为，英国人对于住房的狂热始于18世纪晚期工业革命时期。希金斯教授说：“人们被从乡下的出生地赶走，转移到城市，在那里他们不得不建立新家和新的社会关系网。”在这种情况下，房屋成了人们真正生活的地方，而不是旧式的家族联系。

英国人对房屋的拥有还存在另外一个或许在其他国家的人看来迷惑不解的特点，那就是“买新卖旧，不断改善”的愿望。人们开始时购买较小的房产，如一套公寓，几年后，当他们有了更好的工作、更高的收入，就卖掉这套公寓再买更大的。他们可能在一生当中重复几次这样的买卖。

例如，伦敦的一对新婚夫妇开始时可能会在城里稍破旧的地方如克拉珀姆或巴特西买下一套公寓。然后他们可以卖掉这套，再在时髦的富尔汉姆或切尔西买一套公寓；当他们开始抚养孩子时，他们可能会搬去乡间一所更大的带花园的房子，使孩子们可以在花园里玩耍。

这样，“买新卖旧，不断改善”就不只是关于卖出买进房产，而是在社会地位阶梯上攀登了。人们可能会根据你的住房来评价你。

      对英国人来说，“对住宅感到骄傲”也就是对自己感到骄傲。你所居住的地方是关于你是谁的重要声明。