Some thought that, for financial reasons, they were in no
position to do so, while others did not wish to invest too much in their houses,
since (like all those questioned, for that matter) they had no legal claim to remain constantly on the land they had occupied. A land tenure security guaranteed by
freehold or leasehold, or even merely by a long-term and calculable toleration of
the occupation, are thus an important pre-condition for investments in housing
improvements.28 This is surely yet another explanation why the housing situation
in the country is often less disastrous than in the towns.