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This study investigates how Chinese developers responded to the changing patterns of investment in residential real estate in Sydney since 2010. The analysis also outlines the key lessons for cities around the world with high levels of Chinese foreign buyers and developers, which may experience a similar foreign real estate investment decline as a result of changing dynamics in domestic real estate markets, changes in China, and/or wider changes in the global economy or other key global events. Unlike Chinese individual foreign real estate investors who largely exited the real estate market after 2017, Chinese property developers remained committed to the domestic market in Australia. As such, this analysis is framed by a period of individual foreign capital withdrawal and is focused on foreign developers rather than individual foreign real estate investors. The paper argues that focusing on the actions of foreign developers in a domestic real estate market is important because the organisational structure and business practices of foreign developers can be vastly different to those of domestic developers. The analysis shows that since 2017 Chinese developers responded in two ways to the changing residential real estate market in Sydney: (1) they revised their sales strategies to target different customer groups; and/or (2) they changed their building practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of large-scale urbanisation and rural land expropriation, rural resettlement residential housing has been built to accommodate local rural residents in the peripheral areas of China. To explore the context-specific policy implications for improving neighbourhood satisfaction (NS) of residents in rural resettlement residential communities (RRRCs), this paper examines the determinants of NS, and their spatial effects, in rural resettlement residential neighbourhoods using Suqian, in Jiangsu Province, as a case study. This study contributes to the current literature in two ways: it constitutes the first attempt to examine NS among RRRCs; second, our spatial model helps to gain further understanding of horizontal and vertical spatial dependence effects. Our results indicate that income, gender, age, family structure, number of years living in a community, transport and architectural age all have significant effects on NS in RRRCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Chinese people are technically guaranteed a place to live through the hukou system, homelessness is still an issue in China. Our paper aims to explore the home-making strategies of homeless people in the context of China's homelessness policy transition from repatriation to assistance in the post-socialist era, using in-depth interviews with homeless people and others interacting with them in Shanghai's high-prestige downtown area. Drawing on Giddens' structuration theory, we find that homeless people work to create a sense of home through: 1) avoiding the government service centres where freedom, privacy and social contact are restricted; 2) adapting their routines to rigid place management in the daytime and benefitting from strict security at night; and 3) tactically utilising surrounding spaces and facilities to carry out daily activities and develop a sense of home and control. Government assistance through the service centres is inadequate and may even be diametrically opposed to home-making, highlighting room for improvement in government homelessness policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is an ownership society, but with a paradox – many homeowners do not live in the apartments/houses they own, and instead live in rental housing. This is different from the pattern in Western economies where households own multiple properties but still live in an owned unit. The paper is situated within the literature on the financialization of housing and the changing meaning of homeownership. We examine the paradox by studying its patterns and dynamics using 2017 China Household Finance Survey data. We find that the owner-renting in China is a result of spatial, temporal and functional mismatches between housing needs. The intrinsic investment strategy and services linked to homeownership have made it imperative to own homes, regardless a household's housing needs. Young, single, better-off and split households, and those in large, expensive cities are more likely to be owners-renting. In addition, institutional barriers in the housing market such as migrant status, housing purchase limit policy, and subsidized housing encourage owner-renting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people across many societies face growing problems in making the transition from the parental home to independent living. Rising house prices and the lack of affordable alternatives to home ownership is most commonly blamed. This paper explores these issues in relation to young people in Hong Kong. The paper argues that the housing question in Hong Kong has distinct local characteristics and cannot be disconnected from wider political and economic tensions. It also shows that the housing choices and views of young people are shaped by more than issues of cost and access. The paper draws on a unique data-set which explores the attitudes and expectations with regard to housing among young people in Hong Kong. Addressing the housing problem is widely regarded as a political priority and essential to maintain social cohesion. However, political imperatives and economic interests are pulling in different directions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Housing has become the most important asset held by a large proportion of China’s older citizens. Therefore, the role of housing wealth in the consumption decisions of the elderly is a central topic of research and gains insights into the saving, investment and consumption decisions made throughout household life to meet later pension needs. In this paper, using data drawn from a household survey conducted between 2002 and 2009, we estimate the influence of housing wealth on the non-housing consumption of the elderly, and identify the mechanisms underlying this relationship. We find that on average, changes in housing wealth have limited effects on elderly consumption. However, we also find that the role of housing in consumption differs according to the income, health status, and living arrangements of the elderly. The paper draws attention to the influence of housing and its links with social and health-care systems on the lives of older people, with important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance of numerous rural migrants has always been crucial to China’s social stability. Through a Foucauldian lens, this paper discusses surveillance of rural migrants and studies a new local approach called rental housing management (RHM). During recent years, local authorities in Dongguan have been developing RHM into an operation of incremental Panopticism that consists of gradually reinforced surveillance techniques—partitioning, monitoring, digital entrance guarding, and local registration—in retrofitted rental residences. The RHM enforces local authorities’ inspection and control of migrants, and induces migrants’ self-reporting, self-inspection, and self-protection. This creates difficulties with migrants’ social interaction and community building. This paper reveals that local authorities have been transforming surveillance approaches from management based onhukou(household registration) into RHM that furthers localized spatial governance of rural migrants in thehukoureform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Housing Provident Fund (HPF), a compulsory saving scheme providing self-funded housing credit, is a significant provider of housing finance in several emerging economies. The Chinese HPF program constitutes the largest social housing finance program in the world. Yet, very few studies have examined it. This paper documents the history of China's HPF program, in particular, how it has evolved from a local experiment to a prominent national housing program. It then examines the program's management structure and the role of HPF lending in meeting China's housing finance needs. The paper also compares China's HPF experience with the HPF practices in other countries. Finally, the paper examines the challenges China's HPF program faces today and the efforts to address them. The paper concludes by discussing some of the broader lessons that can be learned from China's HPF experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using data from the Rural--Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) survey, this paper evaluates the very recent dynamics of living condition among China's rural--urban migrants during 2008--2014, scrutinizing in particular the differential between the inland region and the coastal region. Along with their improved economic conditions, housing conditions of migrants have in general improved, although compared to urban locals their disadvantages persist over time. The improvement is especially fast among those migrants residing in the inland region. Multivariate regression results indicate that education, income, place of origin and family composition are important determinants of migrants' housing conditions. Finally, decomposition analysis suggests that even after controlling for those observable factors, there is still a large inland--coastal differential. Over time, China's rural--urban migrants are becoming more stable and settled in host cities. The temporary nature of China's migrants, claimed in many previous studies, might be changing. Updated and regionalspecific migrant policies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effects of residential relocation on China’s rural–urban migrants’ social networks in light of evidence from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. Our study contrasts voluntary moves with forced moves driven by demolition-led redevelopment of urban villages. Based on data from a survey conducted between 2012 and 2013, the regression analysis shows that voluntarily relocated migrants are more likely than forced movers to use phone/computer to contact their former neighbours, and communication technology allows them to maintain the frequency of their contact. Furthermore, when moving to a gated neighbourhood, voluntary movers are more likely than forced movers to participate in public activities, to have more contact with new neighbours and thereby to get more help from the residents’ committee and new neighbours. The results suggest that forced moves have negative effects on migrants’ social networks in the neighbourhood and that the demolition-led redevelopment programmes do not promote the migrants’ integration in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growth and resilience of Hong Kong's public rental sector has occurred in the context of an apparent guiding political ethos of minimal and reluctant intervention. This paper offers an account of why this has occurred. A brief account of economic change and housing policy development over the last three decades is followed by an analysis of changes in the social role and social composition of the tenure. This discussion is complemented by some new data on current popular attitudes towards public rental housing in Hong Kong. The paper then explores various theoretical perspectives to provide an explanation of why it has remained as a substantial part of Hong Kong's housing system and points to the key drivers that will shape its future role and trajectory. The empirical data are drawn mainly from an analysis of five waves of the census and a survey of 3000 adults across all housing sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the housing policies in China in the last 14 years in the context of the international debate on the World Bank's housing market enabling strategy to improve low-income housing provision in developing countries. A review of China's urban housing outcomes reveals housing price inflation and shortage of affordable housing in the fast expanding housing market. The paper analyzes policies to increase both demand for and supply of housing and argues that these policies have contributed to worsening affordability. This situation has been exacerbated by problems in the institutional framework managing the housing sector. The paper concludes that market enabling alone is not sufficient to achieve a satisfactory housing outcome for low- and middle-income groups in Chinese cities. It advocates more effective and direct public intervention for enhancing social housing provision and tightening market regulation to address both market and government failures to improve housing conditions for lower income groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we expand rent-gap theory in conceptual and territorial terms. Hitherto, the theory has, as Neil Smith intended, been used in an economic sense; we argue here, borrowing ideas from Pierre Bourdieu, that in the competitive environment of Chinese education, a rent gap in cultural capital is created which can later be converted into economic capital. The process we identify is triggered by the purchase of an apartment in a catchment zone, crucial to obtaining entry into a prestigious ‘key’ school in most Chinese cities. This leads to apartments changing hands for high prices despite generally being old and dilapidated. The rent gap in cultural capital occurs when parents forego potential short-term gains to capitalize on the long-term benefits of a superior education. This is contrasted here with a somewhat more conventional scenario, where property developers exploit a rent gap on suburban apartments built in the catchment of branch ‘key’ schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under Chinese neoliberalisation, restructuring of interactions between the market, the state and local governments has encouraged the latter to suppress public housing provision, resulting in serious housing problems for Chinese low-to-middle income households. Since 2007, the state has pursued a public housing revival, laying out various responsibilities for local governments to develop public housing. However, until recently, confronted with significant shortfalls in fiscal and land inputs, local authorities were largely unable to activate construction on an adequate scale. Nonetheless, between 2011 and 2013, the city of Chongqing applied a mode to supply public rental housing on a massive scale. This paper examines the administrative structure and reforms that have ensured the execution of the Chongqing programme. Findings show that specific political and economic incentives of the local officials have played important roles for realising the programme. Moreover, the municipality’s control of land supply and the market have also enabled an efficient cooperation between governmental and market actors for public housing provision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the last half century or so, China has probably experienced more dramatic and fundamental changes than most other societies. Housing and family life have been embedded in a series of far-reaching societal changes, notably the communist victory of 1949, the period of the Cultural Revolution and the more recent drive towards a more market oriented society, with housing reforms at the forefront. This paper examines the way in which housing histories among families in Shanghai were shaped by these events and by their interaction with specific intergenerational dynamics. The paper draws on research carried out in Shanghai in 2008 which involved in-depth interviews with individual members of three linked generations. The research provides a unique account of family housing histories over three generations against a particularly turbulent backcloth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of the housing impact of the recent financial crisis in an East Asian context, specifically Hong Kong. In doing so, the paper argues that much of the current political economy analysis in this area has been overly focused on mortgage securitization as the centrepiece of liberal housing finance systems. The paper also shows that an understanding of the limited development of mortgage securitization in Hong Kong lies in the embedded actions of institutional agents. The paper seeks to contribute to ongoing policy debates about the differential impact of the financial crisis on housing markets and to broader theoretical conceptions of ‘residential capitalisms’. In relation to the latter, the aim is to strengthen the East Asian dimension of these discussions and to reinforce arguments regarding the importance of the embedded actions of agents in shaping housing finance systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced a huge wave of rural to urban migration over the last 25 years; however, Chinese cities do not have the large-scale slum settlements found in other developing countries. Has China found a new way to solve the housing problems of migrants and the urban poor? This paper addresses this question and reports the findings of a recent research project carried out in Shenzhen City. In general, Chinese migrants are poor in comparison with official urban residents. The majority of them live in shared rooms or small apartments in the so-called urban villages. Housing poverty, especially overcrowding, is a serious problem. This paper also highlights the positive contributions made by urban villages and private landlords in housing the large number of migrants in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable commentary and analysis on the origins and aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis there have been few studies which focus on the housing markets of the countries most directly affected. This is surprising given the importance of housing investment in many Asian economies and that over-inflated real estate was deeply implicated in the crisis. This paper explores the particular dynamics of the Hong Kong housing market and its institutional structure during the Asian Financial Crisis. The paper focuses specifically on the relationship between the development structure and the shaping of the policy process and on the interconnections between the housing market and the wider economy. It explains the apparent resilience of the giant developers during the crisis. More generally, the paper emphasises the importance of endogenous institutional dynamics in mediating the impact of the crisis in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing provision in Chinese cities has experienced many changes since 1979 when the country embarked on major economic reform. During the late 1980s and the 1990s many publicly owned houses were sold to their existing tenants or other public sector employees. Large numbers of new houses were built by commercial property developers for the emerging urban housing market. As a result, new patterns of residents have emerged. Housing areas of different standards for different social groups became a dominant feature of large Chinese cities at the end of the 1990s. Will the urban poor benefit from these changes and what is their housing situation like under the reformed system? This paper addresses these questions by examining the nature of the emerging urban poor and their accessibility to housing. It involves an assessment of the implications of recent housing reform policies for the disadvantaged groups. The paper identifies two major groups of urban poor in Chinese cities: the poor among the official urban residents and the poor rural to urban migrants. It concludes that while housing problems of the official urban poor have been recognised, there is no formal policy in relation to housing provision for the unofficial poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Chinese housing reform programme has been rigorously implemented along the direction of marketization and commodification,this paper argues that the reform process has generally neglected its impact on issues such as inequality and distributive justice. Other than its apparent effects on housing production and the improvementof the living condition within some big cities, this paper questions both the underlying values of some of those newly created housing reform institutions such as the Housing Provident Fund and the housing monetarisation policy. It is argued that China is now facing a similar dilemma as with many other Western countries on the question: how much the state should collectively provide housing and how much individuals should be responsible for themselves. It is further suggested that since the reform process is implemented from top-down directives, it often generates a far-reaching impact on the distributional front and, without the right values and corrective measures, social exclusions for vulnerable housing groups are bound to occur, notwithstanding that China is still one of the largest remaining socialist countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small property rights (SPR) housing is an informal way to provide housing for residents in Chinese cities. In this paper, we examine the institutional framework and development of SPR properties in China. Using survey data collected in Beijing, we investigate perceived tenure security and the relationship between legal title and investment in home improvements. We consider both the importance and the limitations of the legal dimension, as well as de facto situations of urban land uses, in order to gain a better understanding of property rights and urban development issues. Our results reveal that the characteristics of buildings and residents in SPR communities are not much different from those of commercial housing properties. The residents have a fairly high degree of tenure security even when their properties are not formally recognized by the state. Nevertheless, our results indicate that the absence of a legal title is effective to discourage the owners of SPR housing properties to invest in their properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After three decades of housing reform, Chinese government embarked on a large-scale expansion of public housing provision over the last few years. This very ambitious plan of public housing construction aims at reducing the negative impacts from global economic slowdown since 2008; at the same time, tackling the huge inflation in and achieve the harmonious society development strategy. This initiative signals a sharp change in housing policy from that in previous decades. It also put China on a different track in housing provision when many other countries tried to cut back public spending to maintain economic stability. This paper aims to provide a timely analysis of the recent resurgence of public housing sector in urban China by examining the policy framework, the new structure of provision, and the driving forces behind this new initiative. We will also assess the similarities and differences of this approach from the Chinese pre-reform housing system and public housing practice in other industrialized countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, Chinese cities have experienced the unprecedented housing development and marketization, which has profoundly changed housing consumption. Using the latest census data, this paper provides the first evaluation of housing consumption in Chinese cities during 2000–2010. Not surprisingly, housing consumption has improved significantly over time, especially in the first five years due to more rapid marketization. Yet, housing inequality has increased significantly over time, especially across education groups. There is also significant spatial inequality at provincial level; yet, it has generally declined over time except inequality in homeownership and subsidized housing. Improved housing consumption and a complex pattern of housing inequality are two main characteristics of housing consumption during this decade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Chinese government promotes green construction as part of the strategy to reduce energy consumption. In practice, green construction can be impeded because various stakeholders valuate green attributes in different ways. This paper uses the analytic hierarchy process to analyse the extent to which developers and planners understand the valuation of green apartment attributes by residents in Nanjing. Results show that buyers of green apartments rank green attributes lower than safety and accessibility, and rank healthy construction materials and comfort much higher than thermal isolation or reduced energy costs. Green developers tend to focus on aspects that define their margin, such as green attributes and locational benefits and overlook the social needs, which are not addressed in building codes and not under their control. They have better understanding of green residents' priorities with health issues; planners are more familiar with the social needs of residents and lack green marketing knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural–urban migration and housing for the urban poor have attracted worldwide attention from both scholars and policy makers. In China, empirical studies have revealed tremendous discrimination experienced by temporary migrants in the urban housing system, but most have emphasized constraints by formal institutions such as thehukousystem. This paper adopts a sociological theory of social capital and employs structural equation modeling to investigate, simultaneously, the impacts of social capital on migrants' housing experiences in Chinese cities, as well as the causal relationships between a migrant's socioeconomic status and his/her social capital profile. Based on data from a twelve-city migrant survey conducted in 2009, statistical analysis revealed that, although migrant workers in general possess a small and truncated network of social ties in the city, those migrants who are connected to individuals with localhukou, rather than connected to more people, have higher access to formal housing and tend to enjoy better housing conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Safe and affordable housing is accepted as a basic right in the modern world. Studies on transitional societies have demonstrated how politicized the housing market can become and how housing consumption is determined by both economic forces and public rules. Rural housing in China offers a unique institutional environment. While residential land is collectively owned and allocated, villagers have the freedom to make decisions with regard to construction space. Drawing on a large national survey, this paper provides the first systematic analysis of the consequences of these different institutional rules. In terms of housing resources, residential land is distributed in a relatively equitable fashion, but the building of structures on that land is defined by a higher degree of social stratification. These findings extend the current literature and confirm the power of institutional rules in housing consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Neo-liberalism has dominated policy formulation and implementation for three decades and been influential in reshaping urban housing provision in different countries. However, the nature and impact of neo-liberal housing policy developments are also affected by previous arrangements, the exact nature, timing and pace of policy change and by how governments and markets have responded to emerging global and local challenges. This paper examines neo-liberal urban housing reform and market development in China and focuses on market performance and government responses following initial reform. The era of neo-liberal housing policy has been associated with turbulence, market changes and unequal housing and asset distribution. Housing reform and regulation policies have changed frequently in response; and this maturation of the neo-liberal system has important implications for policy and the structure and operation of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines home financing in China, using data from household surveys conducted in Guangzhou and Shanghai. The nationwide Housing Provident Fund is still of minor importance. The majority of homebuyers continue to rely heavily on personal savings and parental contributions to finance home purchase. Mortgages are gaining importance, with slightly less than one-third of the purchases employing this means. Demographic attributes have relatively minor effects on mortgage loan utilisation. Socio-economic status is of somewhat greater significance; however, it exhibits contrasting effects in Guangzhou and Shanghai, which may be attributed to the difference in local housing market conditions. Migrants are discriminated by their hukou status. The findings show hukou status affects access to mortgage primarily through its impacts on the job market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Possessing different land rights and distinct landscapes, and separated from the rest of the city by invisible institutional boundaries, China's urban villages are unusual enclaves for landless farmers, rural migrants and other urban hukou (citizenship rights) holders in a period of rapid urbanization. Although urban villages are well known for their disorder and unruliness, they provide temporary livelihood for indigenous villagers and inexpensive shelter for migrants and other urban residents. Urban villages are typically perceived as homogeneous low-income neighbourhoods characterized by low quality and high density housing. In fact, housing differentiation has emerged in urban villages among residents who possess different quantities and types of capital, rights/entitlements, skills and other assets. This paper aims to understand the social groups and the housing differentiation among them in the Chinese urban villages from an institutional perspective. It is based on a large-scale household survey in 11 urban villages in six Chinese cities. Empirical data show evidence of significant housing differentiation within these enclaves: indigenous villagers have become a petty rentier class; rural migrants pay the highest rents while enduring the lowest housing conditions; and housing conditions for urban hukou holders lie between those of the other two groups. Regression analysis suggests that urban villages share similar dynamics of housing differentiation as wider urban spaces, i.e. the combination of strong institutional constraints and emerging market influences leads to housing differentiation and inequality. Residents in urban villages are also highly mobile. The inflows and outflows of population form an important part of the urban socio-spatial restructuring process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing reform in China has proceeded on two tracks: privatization of public housing and development of a new private housing sector. During this period of transition, rents have remained relatively low in the remaining public housing, and purchase prices offered to occupants of public housing have been well below market prices. Although these rents and prices are partly based on known formulas, there is considerable variability in how much people pay for similar apartments. This study uses 2000 Census data to estimate the housing subsidy received by the remaining renters in the public sector and purchasers of public housing, based on private sector prices for housing of comparable quality and size. The paper also analyzes variation in the estimated discount from market prices that these people receive. The findings show that the biggest winners in China's transition from socialist housing allocation are those who were favored in the previous system, based on such factors as residence status, education and occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a prototypal theoretical framework for analyzing property inalienability and applies it to housing of limited property rights in China, which includes so-called 'small-property-rights housing' in the countryside (SLPR housing) and the affordable housing programme in the city (ALPR housing). The integrated analysis of ALPR and SLPR housing focuses on inalienability restrictions to ownership entitlement. By preserving current property use, inalienability can address externality, public good and even macro-economic problems that arise from property sales. Both ALPR and SLPR provide good empirical support for the theoretical hypotheses. Moreover, they demonstrate some important functions of inalienability in a transitional economy, including helping to maintain macro stability as well as being an important tool for implementing partial reform strategy. Inalienability is also a second-best tool to protect private property rights against the intervention of local political forces. However, various problems with ALPR and SLPR housing show that inalienability is also a rough tool that needs to be improved or replaced in order to achieve micro-economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of personal housing loans in advancing homeownership in urban China. The focus is on the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) and commercial bank mortgage loans. National data show that the use of HPF loans and bank loans has only become more common since 1998, but their share of the total expenditure on home purchase remains relatively small. Data derived from household surveys conducted in Guangzhou in 2001 and 2005 show that personal savings and parental contributions are the most important sources of home finance. The affordability of housing is closely tied to personal savings. To date, access to mortgage finance has played a relatively minor role in China's drive towards homeownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban space in China has been subjected to a tremendous transformation after 20 years of market-oriented reform. With ongoing housing reform and a massive increase in housing construction, residential spaces in urban China are changing from largely mixed work-unit compounds towards differentiated neighbourhoods. Drawing upon a survey of three neighbourhoods in Shanghai, this paper examines the impact of new residents on different neighbourhoods. It argues that residential differentiation is constituted by ‘sorting’ stratified residents, regrouped according to their socio-economic status, towards differentiated neighbourhoods: in the central areas, neighbourhoods are being transformed into gentrified upper residential quarters, with the remainder turning into deteriorating workers' villages; meanwhile, the suburbs are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. Increased residential inequalities are found among these neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many studies have found that unemployment has a negative effect on housing prices, the explanation put forward for this effect, that is, uncertainty over the ability to repay long-term mortgage loans, has not been empirically tested. This paper attempts to empirically test this explanation using a cross-city analysis. Singapore and Hong Kong have been chosen because they are both compact cities and are similar in many aspects. The exception is that Singapore has an established system of home financing from the Central Provident Fund, thereby enhancing greater certainty over the ability to repay long-term mortgage loans. Macro-economic factors, including unemployment rate, were analysed from 1993Q1 to 2003Q4 for Singapore and from 1985Q1 to 2000Q4 for Hong Kong. The results show that, unlike Hong Kong, Singapore's rate of unemployment has no statistical significant effect on housing prices. This study has confirmed the financial constraints hypothesis in the permanent income hypothesis study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies two major explanations in gated community studies, namely the club realm of consumption and the discourse of fear, to examine the changing forms of urban 'gated communities', i.e. the transition from work-unit compounds to gated commodity housing enclaves, in urban China. While the gate has existed in China for a long time as a physical form, it has now been rediscovered as an instrument for the partitioning of derelict socialist landscapes produced by 'economising urbanisation' and a post-socialist imagined 'good life'. The study highlights that the function of gating is dependent upon social and economic contexts: under socialism, gating reinforces political control and collective consumption organised by the state; in the post-reform era, the gate demarcates emerging consumer clubs in response to the retreat of the state from the provision of public goods. While the discourse of fear seems less applicable to the Chinese city, urban fragmentation is paving the way to a new urban experience of insecurity, which has begun to appear in the discourse of 'community building' in urban China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urban housing reform started in the early 1980s, as a part of comprehensive economic reform. The old system was dominated by work units that provided substantial in-kind services to their employees, including heavily subsidised housing. It brought three serious problems: housing shortages, corruption and inequities. The goals of housing reform were to solve these problems through urban housing privatisation, commercialisation and socialisation. This study examines China's urban housing reform through a case study of the city of Jinan. It first reviews the history of housing development in Jinan from the 1950s to the 1980s, and then analyses Jinan's reform practices in the 1990s. Its finding is that, after many years' efforts, housing reform in Jinan has made substantial progress, but mostly with respect to privatisation. The problem of housing shortages has been addressed and crowding has lessened considerably. Anecdotal evidence suggests that corruption is less widespread than in the past. The other important housing problem, inequity, still exists and, in some respects, has even worsened. In particular, a new form of horizontal inequity has arisen due to the persistent role of work units in housing provision. This paper suggests that, in the future, the government should take a more positive role rather than leaving the market alone to deal with the problem of housing inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper aims to understand how renters make their housing decisions in urban China, where market mechanisms are being introduced into a previously welfare oriented housing system. It is argued that while renters now enjoy more housing options, their choices are constrained not only by socio-economic factors as is the case in the West, but also by persisting socialist institutions such as the hukou system and work units. Using a national survey carried out in 1996 and a technique of multi-level modelling, the empirical study suggests that while private housing is becoming an important option, renters who can access public housing are still more likely to choose public housing because of heavy subsidies. Yet, renters with rural and temporary hukou, and those working in low-ranking work units are at a disadvantage in the housing market. In general they do not qualify for public housing, and private housing is their only option. Although the socialist housing system is under reform, it still defines renters' housing access and thus shapes their behaviour in the late 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines selected aspects of housing policy and its influence on private rental housing in Hong Kong. Its ambitions are modest, in part because so little research has been conducted on the sector, as a consequence of the small size of the sector as well as the concentration of socio-political, economic and policy analyses on the other major housing sectors, namely public renting and home ownership. It is argued that a fundamental function of private renting, to provide a functional substitute and counter-balance to distortions in the market for private home ownership, has been systematically undermined in Hong Kong. In spite of its historical importance in meeting Hong Kong people's housing needs, the sector's decline has been steep and it can now be fairly described as a marginalised tenure, despite incomplete structural adjustment post- Asian Financial Crisis. It is suggested that a fundamental reason for the decline of the private rental sector has been the impact of government policy, which undermined the private rental sector and thus an important element of the market mechanism in housing provision. The government's ideology of home ownership has also functioned to transfer lower middle-income families into the owner occupied sector. Although the Hong Kong government has not been as overtly hostile to this sector as governments have been elsewhere, it nevertheless also seems to envisage no real role for the private rental sector in a housing delivery system molded by policy preference for home ownership, rather than fostering viable economic competition by also facilitating an efficient private rental sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent housing reform in China signifies the paradigm shift from central planning to market mechanisms in the allocation of housing resources. This paper aims to identify major determinants, household demographics and work unit characteristics in the tenure choice decision so that policy implications can be drawn. The case study on Guangzhou provides insights into Mainland household decisions on choosing the utility-maximising tenure mode. Empirical results indicate that the market allocation mechanism introduced by the housing reforms has not yet replaced the entrenched influence from work units on home ownership behaviour. The finding on unsatisfied home owners is rather unexpected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hong Kong Government is vigorously promoting home ownership, a major rationale being to increase the community's sense of belonging and reduce the rate of emigration. This paper evaluates whether home owners in Hong Kong have a higher sense of social belonging than renters and finds that tenure status is a spurious independent variable in assessing respondents' sense of belonging to Hong Kong. Logistic regression analysis suggests that the significance of tenure is greatly reduced when other variables, namely age, identity, income and foreign abode right are controlled. The analysis also shows that those possessing a comparatively high sense of social belonging tend to bear the identification of Hong Kong Chinese, be older, have high incomes, and hold no foreign right of abode. Of the control variables, the factor of 'identity' appears most influential. Hong Kong's relationship with China, the uncertain nature of a Hong Kong identity and the territory's economic trajectory as a higher order services economy has meant that housing policy, specifically the promotion of home ownership, is perceived by the government as influencing values and behaviour very narrowly defined as promoting social belonging primarily in a territorial or geographical sense, with wider implications of neighbourhood stability unconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In Hong Kong, the demand for home ownership over the past decade has been phenomenal. Before the economic crisis and the property market slump in 1997/98, house prices in Hong Kong were among the highest in the world. A 'home ownership ethos' was cultivated, in which most people believed that the promotion of home ownership brought prosperity to the economy and benefited individual owners. This paper argues that the existing 'pro-ownership and anti-rental' housing policy does not benefit the economy or many of the lower and middle-income homeowners. On the contrary, it undermines the stability of the economy and widens social inequalities along various dimensions such as class and gender, and between the younger and older generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Experiments with changing the system of urban housing in China have been implemented sporadically since the early 1980s, but the pace of change has picked up considerably since 1994. While numerous obstacles still exist, policy-makers appear determined to increase home ownership and move toward a market-oriented housing system. This paper reviews the progress made in the 1990s and the outlook for new housing policies being proposed and implemented in China today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers presented at a symposium in China that is published within the issue, including the recent research on Chinese housing, housing market in the Netherlands and the impacts of housing reform on homeownership in China using the 2001 Beijing Housing Survey data.