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Informal housing accommodates a large number of populations in the worldwide and has received considerable attention. However, there is still a lack of understanding on the diversified informal settlers and their housing incentives, constraints, and risks they face. Based on existing research on property rights and informal settlements, this study presents a conceptual framework that includes four dimensions of property rights (the right of possession, the right of use, the right to earn rental income and the right of transfer) to explore the de facto property rights of Small Property Rights Housing (SPRH) owners for a better understanding on informal housing ownership and its relationship with formal and informal institutional arrangements in China. In-depth interviews with SPRH owners were conducted to explore the de facto property rights of SPRH ownership. Findings reveal that the “small” property rights shaped by formal and informal institutional arrangements have resulted in unique housing values of SPRH. Such housing values have met a wide range of housing needs and motivated heterogeneous social groups to obtain SPRH ownership in urbanizing China. Constructive attempts to clarify the “small” property rights of SPRH should consider the different social groups of informal housing owners and their diversified housing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban development in China is based on two types of land ownership, namely, state land owned by states and collective land owned by village collectives. Legally speaking, urban development must be based on state land. In practice, informal development based on collective land has played important roles in the rapid urbanization process over the past decades. Nonetheless, the vague property rights over collective land have led to inferior and suboptimal development outcomes in expansive urban areas. The redevelopment of collective land has become an important means to sustain urban development in an ongoing urbanization process. By adopting theoretical perspectives from New Institutional Economics, this study presents an integrated conceptual framework on the institutional arrangements of land property rights and transaction costs to understand the changes in land policies and their institutional implications for the redevelopment of collective land in Shenzhen, China. The findings reveal that the new policies have redefined the relationship among the government, village collectives, and real estate developers as well as their property rights over collective land. The change of institutional arrangements in land property rights has significantly reduced the transaction costs in the redevelopment process and effectively promoted land redevelopment activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small Property Rights Housing (SPRH) is an important part of informal housing in China. SPRH is defined as housing developed with collective land ownership that is then sold to outside homebuyers such as non-indigenous villagers. This housing practice is legally forbidden and comes without formal titles. SPRH is popular in big Chinese cities where formal housing prices are constantly rising and increasingly unaffordable for many urban residents. However, research on SPRH is rare. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects (or the lack thereof) of de-jure property rights on housing prices by using the empirical case of Shenzhen where SPRH and FPRH estates constitute the main sources of urban housing for its residents. We collected both SPRH and formal Full Property Right Housing (FPRH) data in the Shenzhen housing market and adopted the Boundary Fixed Effect method and matching strategy to mitigate the bias caused by unobservable location and neighborhood factors. This empirical study shows that the lack of de-jure property rights has negative and significant effects on housing prices. The average housing price for SPRH apartments is, ceteris paribus , 52.82% lower than for formal FPRH apartments. Also, the premium of property rights varies across two administrative regions with different locations and economic environments, and the premium decreases as the age of the building increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a unique phenomenon of urbanisation in China, the emergence of urban villages has attracted considerable attention from the academic community. Adopting an institutional approach on land development, this study analyses how the land property rights regime affects village-led land development behaviours and spatial outcomes in urban villages. Using a set of reliable data from Shenzhen, the empirical study shows that, although unequal land rights under the current land property rights regime impose severe institutional constraints to the development of urban villages, they actually play a much more important and diversified role in China’s urbanisation than previously recognised. As the primary developers of urban villages, villagers have adopted various land development strategies in response to the changing market environment and internal economic conditions in the dynamic urbanisation process. These dynamic strategies have contributed to the coexistence of sub-optimal industrial development and high-quality housing development in urban villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990 s, the restructuring of the global economic system has ushered in worldwide 'post-productivist transitions' (PPTs) and triggered development in rural areas and agricultural adjustments for meeting the requirements of urban populations to consume 'rurality'. While adaptive development of rural areas has occurred in Western countries, it is hardly possible in China, where strict land conversion controls over rural land exist. In China, an increasing need for construction in rural areas results in the overexploitation of existing built-up land. Taking the fragmented rights of homestead land and collectively operated built-up land into consideration, the deterioration of natural and built environments becomes inevitable and damages the sustainability of PPTs. By investigating two PPT cases in China, this study argues that land conversion controls over collective-owned rural land have stimulated denser, at times illegal, development in villages. The study also contends that fragmented use rights hamper environment-friendly development, possibly ending PPTs, as happened in Xiaozhou Village in Guangzhou. Given the practices in Wanfu Village in Chengdu, policies that end land conversion controls and encourage assembly could partially solve the problem by allowing sustainable rural land development. Preparing space for urban populations in a sustainable way helps avoid the illegal redevelopment of villages and protects the area's rurality, allowing PPTs to evolve. This study advocates for institutional adjustment when designing a path for developing PPTs. • Land conversion controls in rural China hamper Western-style new development for PPTs. • Fragmented land rights make the assembly of land parcels hard to implement. • Space requirement was met with unsustainable redevelopment on small rural construction land parcels. • Issuing more 'land conversion quotas' and strengthening the planning control help to develop sustainably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rapid urbanization of China during the past decades has led to the emergence and development of urban villages. Existing literature has largely focused on the lack of state regulations in the development of urban villages. This paper comprehensively identifies and investigates the institutional constraints on land development in urban villages in China based on a property rights framework and a comparative study on two representative cases in Shenzhen. The key institutional constraints on the land development in urban villages include 1) land insecurity caused by the possibility of government expropriation, 2) unequal access to credit because of unequal land rights, and 3) absence of state regulations on collective land transactions because of the lack of de jure property rights. These institutional constraints weakened the land-related investment incentives and ability of villagers, and resulted in inferior infrastructure and poorly constructed environment in urban villages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The study investigates the economic performance of industrial development in the Chinese urbanization process under two different property rights arrangements. Industrial development contributes significantly to China's economic growth in the urbanization process. As one of the most fundamental institutional arrangements, the urban–rural dual land system is important in urbanization and industrial development in China. Two types of land system including state and collective ownership coexist in the current land administration system. According to the law, the state owns the urban land, whereas the village collective owns the rural land. State requisition is the only channel to convert rural land to urban land. Village collectives are not allowed to transfer their land for urban use. Therefore, the property rights on collective land are incomplete in the urbanization process. Do incomplete property rights cause unsatisfactory economic performance of industrial development on collective land? Based on community-level data from two districts with an area of 1557 km2 in Shenzhen in 2006, a regression analysis shows that incomplete property rights have caused significant land use inefficiency in industrial development in terms of lower land rental value and lower industrial value added per unit of land. The findings suggest that monthly rental prices of industrial plants on collective land were approximately 57% less than those on state land in 2006. The industrial value produced on collective land was RMB 6.624 billion less than on state land per km2. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Urban renewal has become an essential part of the ongoing urban development in China. This study provides a citywide analysis on the spatial determinants of land redevelopment activities in the urban renewal processes in Shenzhen, China. Based on the concept of rent gap and a perspective of transaction costs, a conceptual framework is developed to understand land redevelopment behaviors and analyze how location factors, land property rights, land use status and urban planning collectively affect land redevelopment outcomes. Empirical analysis is conducted based on logistic regression models with unique parcel-level data of all urban renewal projects in the entire city of Shenzhen and in special economic zone (SEZ) and non-SEZ areas. This study shows that urban sites with high land rent gap levels and low transaction costs are more likely to be redeveloped earlier. Aside from location factors, land property rights, land use status and urban planning all have a significant influence on the spatial variation of land redevelopment activities. These factors have varied effects on land redevelopment in the SEZ and non-SEZ areas due to the institutional differences and development conditions in these two areas. The research findings suggest the need for further policy considerations to better guide land redevelopment toward sustainable development. Redevelopment policies and regulations should also consider the dissimilar redevelopment conditions of different regions. • A citywide analysis on spatial determinants of land redevelopment is conducted based on parcel-level data. • Urban sites with a higher level of land rent gap and a lower level of transaction costs are more likely to be redeveloped. • Location factors, land property rights, land use status and urban planning collectively affect redevelopment outcomes. • The effects are different in SEZ and non-SEZ areas due to the institutional differences and development conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]