Housing reform in a marketised socialist economy: The case of shanghai

Abstract

Marketisation and privatization reforms implemented in Shanghai since 1980 have facilitated housing construction and the improvement of housing conditions. The multiplication of construction capital would have been impossible without an effective implementation of the consumption reforms and general improvements in the economy.     

Housing Reform in Kolkata: Changes and Challenges

Since 1991 the housing sector in Kolkata has been the subject of significant reforms based on profound changes in the political economy of the State of West Bengal. The paper reviews four reform initiatives: public-private partnership, privatisation of public rental housing, development of New Towns, and the finance sector deregulation in Kolkata and discusses their relevance to the urban context of the city. It is observed that the new reform measures have been successful in reviving the housing market by attracting private and foreign investment and producing housing for the middle- and upper-income population, but have led to the loss of safety nets, and ignored the informal urban context of the city, resulting in the exclusion of about a third of the city population who live in slums and bustees. As a result, the benefits of housing market growth have been offset by the failure to meet the broader social agenda. While a general consensus in favour of the reform is evident, there is growing concern that the broader ideology of housing the poor is being discounted in favour of capital-driven development fuelled by globalisation and privatisation.     

The Shaping of Housing Histories in Shanghai

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.     

Property Restitution and Private Rental Housing in Transition: The Case of the Czech Republic

The objective of this paper is to explain one phenomenon evident in the transformation of post-socialist states that has received insufficient scholarly attention to date: the restitution of the housing stock in terms of its causes and consequences. In this paper, the theory of social constructivism, including Kemeny's advanced application of this theory to the field of housing studies, is used to (a) explain the causes for a particular type of property restitution in the Czech Republic and (b) outline its consequences on the role and long-term social meaning of private rental housing. This research explains how restitution was viewed by the main participants in this discourse, and how the whole process was legitimised and socially constructed in the Czech Republic. The evidence presented stems from a multi-method analysis of discourse that integrates the results of in-depth interviews, content analysis of the press, and an analysis of data from attitude surveys. The paper shows how the initial state of consensus surrounding the image of restitution quickly dissolved. The emergence of divisions combined with the inadequate response of the state generated a biased image of private rental housing among Czech citizens—a pattern that persists to the present.     

经济体制改革下的城市住宅发展--以荆州城区住宅为例

改革开放至今中国城市住宅发展分为三个时期,房改初期解决住宅短缺,商品经济时代强调完善使用功能,建设生产经济时期面向需求的多样化发展。荆州作为全国首批住房制度改革试点城市,在这三个时期内完成了城市住宅制度的改造。本主要分析在城市经济体制改革下经济的发展对荆州城市住宅政策及住宅规划设计的影响。     

房屋建筑学课程设计改革探讨

对房屋建筑学课程设计中存在的问题进行了简单论述,针对各问题提出了教学改革策略,并从课程设计时间安排、题目选择、指导内容、绘图方法、考核方式五个方面作了详细阐述,以提高学生的综合素质,培养学生的创新能力。     

Housing quality of communist party members in Urban China: a comparative study

Using two nationally representative samples from 1988 and 1995, this study examines the comparison of housing quality determinants between Communist Party members and non‐Communist Party members. This study finds that, although Communist Party membership tenure is an important factor in determining housing size and quality among the members themselves, the significant factors that influence housing size and quality do not greatly differ from those of non‐members or the general population. However, several key variables have widely varying impacts on housing size and quality across groups and/or time. These variables include: housing type, education, primary work unit, public‐financed health care, household size, occupational rank of primary employment and total family assets and disposable family income.     

The commodification of land and housing: the case of South Korea

The developmentalist state in South East Asia has played an important role in guiding and promoting economic growth. Although an implicit theme of much of the discourse is the role of the state in controlling the factors of production, this is not located within the decommodification/commodification debate. Proceeding from the premise that underlies much of economic theory, namely that land values at a time reflect the residual (or surplus) of economic activity that requires land as a factor input, the purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which the Korean state has managed the commodification of urban development and the distributional effects of this process. In spite of private land ownership the state has had a major impact on the processes by which land has become commodified, using extensive land expropriation and land‐use planning powers. The Korean state used different strategies to manage trends to commodification at different times: land readjustment projects were used from the 1950s to the 1970s and Public Management Development projects were the main mechanism of urban development from the 1980s. The urban development system was feasible because of the state's extensive control over access to housing finance (decommodified money). In the mid‐1990s there was a shift towards greater private sector involvement in urban development. The distributional effects of the urban development process have been highly inequitable. Subsidised home ownership for middle‐income families has been favoured over provision of public rental housing for low‐income families, driven in major part by cash flow considerations of the developmentalist state. Further, the basis of selecting beneficiaries has been very arbitrary. The system has promoted significant land concentration and land speculation particularly by private companies, including the large chaebol (corporations).     

论住房制度改革及住房保障的发展

通过系统的回顾我国住房制度改革的发展历史,以及对住房市场和住房保障两条发展路线的梳理,结合福利经济学的观点,提出住房保障是住房市场的必要补充,是对社会财富合理再分配的观点。提出了住房保障应当与住房市场相互协调,住房保障的规模要与经济发展水平、社会发展阶段相适应的相互发展关系。     

浅析市场经济下的住宅设计

通过分析市场经济下 ,房地产开发商、消费群体和建筑师之间的运行体制的变化 ,探讨了市场经济下的住宅设计的新特点 ,指出建筑师只有遵从市场导向 ,提高自身素质 ,才能设计出好的住宅方案。     

Housing policy in the emergent socialist mixed economy of Eastern Europe

The late 1980s signal a qualitatively new stage in the development of socialist economies. Earlier reforms attempted to move away from a monolithic, centrally planned system, to find more effective mechanisms of economic management, in particular to reduce the role of planning and increase the role of the market within the statist economy. But during the last two or three years a significant change has occurred in the reform discourse. The debate over ‘how much plan and how much market’ has come to be replaced by a call for a reform of ownership (Bauer, 1988). A ‘socialist mixed economy’, with a statist sector complemented by a private sector seems to be in the making.

This paper has two aims.

In the first part I present the trend towards a socialist mixed economy. I will explain the forces pointing in this direction, the likely functioning of a socialist mixed economy, and finally, how different a socialist mixed economy might be from a capitalist one.

In the second part I look at the housing economy, and explore how housing policy may change as the national economy becomes increasingly mixed. Re‐privatisation of housing preceded re‐privatisation or deregulation in other sectors. From the late 1960s onwards the state began to withdraw from housing construction in many countries (Ciechocinska, 1988; Daniel and Temesi, 1984; Tosics, 1987). By the late 1980s a significant proportion of new housing was built which was the individual property of the occupants. Is the housing system therefore already a mixed economy? In my view, the answer to this question is no. The main purpose of the second section of my paper is to show that this ‘re‐privatisation’ or ‘marketisation’ of the housing economy has been highly restricted. As far as the system of production is concerned there has been no private (profit orientated) sector in the housing economy; market‐like forces only regulated the distribution of housing. The task of this paper is to show that the transformation of the national economy into a socialist mixed economy is therefore likely to have far‐reaching consequences for the housing system. I will also try to show, in some detail, what these consequences are likely to be.     

Strategies for In Situ Home Improvement in Romanian Large Housing Estates

Socio-economic and physical change have visibly affected post-socialist cities, yet the state of decay of their inherited large housing estates has only deepened throughout the 1990s, despite the change in tenure through policies of large-scale privatisation. Housing disrepair has now reached a critical stage that requires rapid private and public intervention. This paper examines the extent to which Romanian block residents have been able to improve in situ their housing conditions since 2000, the strategies they employed and the challenges they faced. It focuses on the often ignored private domain of housing, flats and blocks, where changes are also likely to be less visible. By analysing the process of individual utility metering and the practice of collective block management, I argue that besides economics, the unregulated housing context and a relaxed legal culture have challenged individual and collective action and have generated a framework of housing privatism.     

The Past and Future of Housing Policy Innovation: The Case of US State Housing Trust Funds

State governments are increasingly expected to help fill the gap between the demand and supply of affordable housing within the US. Little systematic attention has been paid to state housing strategies over the years, despite a lengthening record of policy innovation. This paper asks what factors influence state adoption of housing trust funds (HTFs), and if these factors differ based on how the trust fund is financed and which state agency is responsible for administering it. Utilizing an event history analysis of pooled cross-sectional data, the paper finds that whether or not a state adopts a HTF, who administers it, and how they fund it, varies based on rates of new, single-family development, the size of the black population, prior state housing expenditures, and citizen ideology. The broader implications of these findings are considered for future housing policy innovations beyond states and HTFs.     

建立和发展我国城镇政策性住宅金融体制的探讨

中国是一个拥有１２亿人口的大国，要解决我国中低收入居民家庭的住宅问题，实现人民安居乐业，必须建立政策性住宅金融体制。     

The Winners in China's Urban Housing Reform

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.     

The dynamics of decentralisation: A case study of the South Australian Housing Trust

Abstract

This paper explores recent organisational changes within the South Australian Housing Trust, focusing specifically on the decentralisation of the authority structure and the reasons behind this change. It was originally hypothesised that decentralisation was a response to the Housing Trust's changed circumstances, but it was discovered that a change in management styles was also an important causal factor.     

经济转型过程中的城镇住房制度改革

在对我国城镇住房制度改革的缘起、进程、目标和特点进行研究分析的基础上,介绍了城镇住房制度的现状,针对新的城镇住房制度的误区,提出了解决建议,以使城镇住房制度的改革向更好的方向发展。     

住房公积金制度的公平缺失与改革思路

我国住房公积金制度历经二十年发展,与经济社会现实的矛盾日益突出,存在受益群体不公平、收益分配不公平与管理体制不公平的问题。针对住房公积金的公平缺失,提出改革公积金存贷款制度、重新设计公积金增值收益分配顺序与改革管委会代表制度的思路。     

小户型住宅设计探讨

通过对小户型住宅的调查与研究,分析其特点,探索小户型的居住适应性及发展。同时,对改变小户型居住空间的视觉感受及使用功能做了一些探讨。     

The Political Economy of Social Housing Reform—A Framework for Considering Decentralised Ownership, Management and Service Delivery in Australia

Several State Housing Authorities in Australia are currently examining models of devolved management and ownership of social housing stock and addressing reduced Commonwealth State Housing Agreement funding (or have already done so). These changes in the provision and mode of below-market accommodation are reflective of two broad trends: firstly, a greater reliance on market and not-for-profit provision of public services; and, secondly, a change in the role and mode of bureaucratic intervention at various levels of government. In this article we illustrate a framework for analysing these changes by focusing on the transfer of some 86 000 properties from the Glasgow City Council to the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) in 2003 and also provide an interpretation of how the restructuring of social housing in the UK reflects the political economy of property rights, and the governance and incentive structure through which the restructuring of advanced economies is implemented. We conclude by briefly drawing implications from the British case for Australia. The analysis is conducted in a new institutional tradition that assesses property rights and the provision of social housing, and associated policy goals, under comparative institutional arrangements or governance structures. We argue that stock transfer in essence is a policy of delineating ownership of different attributes of the housing stock and that such a delineation is crucial to the functioning of the emerging governance structure and the ability of stakeholders to extract value from ownership. We draw on a series of interviews conducted by the authors as part of research into the 2003 GHA transfer. These interviews were conducted with policy makers and politicians (past and present), the regulator in Scotland, GHA staff and representatives of the community-based housing association sector in Glasgow.