| Description |
Since the late 1990s, housing reform in urban China has fundamentally transformed the housing delivery system to a market-based one, ending the welfare distribution of housing. The housing reform has been accompanied by rapid urbanization, massive rural-urban migration, and a dramatic increase in housing consumption in urban China. However, not everyone has benefited from the housing reform. Housing has become the single largest source of economic inequality and social tensions in urban China. As the Chinese government continues to promote urbanization as a means of economic development in the next decade, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the major source of inequality in urban China. Based on micro data from the 2005 mini census, this thesis examines urban housing in China during the post-reform era, with a particular focus on housing tenure status and housing conditions. Specific attention is paid to the spatial variation of housing consumption across the country and among different demographic groups. The results show that: 1) Commodity housing has emerged as a major pathway to homeownership in urban China, especially in the east; 2) the influence of the socialist housing system is still evident: owning work-unit housing remains a dominant form of homeownership and public rental housing is still prevalent; 3) there are great differences among various socioeconomic groups in housing tenure status and housing conditions; most notably, rural migrants and young people-who have hardly benefited from the pre-reform housing system-are most like to rent private housing in cities and face challenges in attaining homeownership; 4) regression analysis reveals that in the post-reform era, socioeconomic variables such as household income and education attainment have become important factors determining housing outcomes; 5) institutional factors inherited from the pre-reform period such as institutional affiliations and hukou status continue to play a prominent role in housing consumption. |
