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.     

Labour market change and housing market segmentation in south Australia's non-metropolitan private rental market

This paper reports on research into the relationship between labour market change and the private rental market in non-metropolitan South Australia for the period 1990 to 2000. It finds that there is considerable 'stickiness' within the market and that there has been a limited supply response to changing levels of demand. This has contributed to housing and labour shortages in some regions and over-supply in others. Each circumstance has generated considerable dilemmas for public policy.     

Labour market change and housing market segmentation in south Australia's non‐metropolitan private rental market

Abstract

This paper reports on research into the relationship between labour market change and the private rental market in non‐metropolitan South Australia for the period 1990 to 2000. It finds that there is considerable ‘stickiness’ within the market and that there has been a limited supply response to changing levels of demand. This has contributed to housing and labour shortages in some regions and over‐supply in others. Each circumstance has generated considerable dilemmas for public policy.     

ANOTHER LOOK AT HOUSING ALLOWANCES: A RESPONSE TO CHESTER HARTMAN

Program experience with the Section 8 Existing Housing program and final research findings from the Experimental Housing Allowance Program have shown that, contrary lo Chester Hartman's conclusions in his recent Journal article, housing allowance programs similar to HUD's proposed Housing Payment Certificate program are an effective way to provide housing subsidies for families in need of assistance. Comparisons with public housing and unrestricted cash grants show that allowances produce the largest increase in housing consumption per subsidy dollar, and the design of the Housing Payment Certificate program will assure that those subsidies go to families most in need. Criticisms suggesting an inadequate supply of affordable, standard housing are refuted by the Section 8 Existing record of 750,000 families now renting units on the private market. Finally, discrimination has not prevented these families from finding standard housing or moving to different neighborhoods. The Housing Payment Certificate program is proposed not as a substitute for the Department's current commitment to a range of housing programs, but rather as the vehicle for new assistance.     

Meeting housing needs through the market: An assessment of housing policies and the supply/demand balance in France and Great Britain

In both Britain and France, for the last 15 years or so, housing policy has become more market‐orientated. This paper examines what this has meant for the balance between supply and demand and for progress in meeting housing needs. Current projections for how housing needs and the demand/supply balance will develop in the 1990s are also analysed. For each country, the determinants of housing demand, both demographic and economic, and the supply position in both the private and public sectors, are examined. Several common issues are identified: the existence of unmet housing needs, problems of indebtedness, the limits to the expansion of owner occupation, problems of social housing finance, and concerns about the decline of the private rented sector. There are also important differences between the two countries: housing output remains at a higher level in France than in Britain; deregulation of housing finance has gone further in Britain than in France; and in France there remains a greater recognition by government that housing is a national responsibility. But in both countries, the ‘marketisation’ of housing policy has meant that housing outcomes have become more dependent on factors external to the housing system.     

Motives for Investments in Housing Rehabilitation among Private Landlords under Rent Control

In economic studies of the private rental sector of the housing market, and in political debates on housing policy, it is often assumed that private landlords are basically guided by rational economic motives. In this paper, which is based on a Danish study of housing rehabilitation activity among private landlords under rent control, it is shown that different groups of landlords exist who have many other motives for buying and maintaining rental property than those assumed in economic theory. It is concluded that private landlords do not behave as economic, rational and efficient actors as is often assumed, and that an understanding of these structures of landlordism is essential to an assessment of the role of private landlords in housing supply, and to an elaboration of public programmes for supporting housing rehabilitation in the private rental sector.     

商品住房市场土地供给政策调控的传导机制分析

土地供给政策在中央及各城市的房地产调控政策文件中频繁出现,表明了其在住房市场调控中的重要作用。本文就各土地供给政策工具将如何影响商品住房市场进行研究,希望对土地供给政策的制定提供参考。文章主要通过供求均衡模型分析各土地供给政策对住房市场的作用。并得出如下结论:各土地供给政策通过影响土地市场各环节和住房市场供给弹性对商品住房市场产生影响,其影响渠道较为复杂,但主要土地供给政策工具通过各种渠道影响住房市场的方向是可以判断的。土地供应数量通过住房供给数量、土地价格水平及住房供给预期三种渠道影响住房市场,且同时从三种渠道对房价产生负向作用;我国2002～2004年进行的土地出让方式改革则通过住房供给数量、土地价格水平和住房供给价格弹性影响住房市场,且三种渠道都会助推房价的上涨。     

The extreme primacy of location: Beijing's underground rental housing market

This article analyzes Beijing's subterranean housing market within the context of the city's larger housing supply system. The emergence of this widespread market of rooms for rent in bomb shelters and basements indicates a demand for housing attributes that neither the mainstream private housing market nor public housing programs yet supply. The study collected market data about these rental units from internet ads during October 2012–September 2013 and mapped their locations, displaying their general spatial distribution. Next, a hedonic price model was deployed on this data which reveals the relative priorities and preferences in price levels, location, and housing amenities of the middle–lower income population, particularly migrants who do not possess hukou, Chinese urban residence rights.     

The supply of private rented housing in Canada

Canadian housing policy objectives are generally pursued through a market framework. There is little provision of non-market housing. Thus, while Canada has a substantial private rented sector, it has only a small social rented housing sector. About a third of all dwellings belong to private landlords for market renting and only six percent are owned by public and private landlords for non-profit renting. The supply of dwellings newly constructed specifically for private market rental has fallen over the last 20 years. This fall has been compensated for in part by the supply of existing dwellings that have been transferred from other tenures. There has also been a fall in the proportion of private market rented dwellings owned by corporate landlords and an increase in the proportion owned by small-scale individual landlords, including individuals buying existing dwellings in other tenures to convert to private renting. These recent supply-side changes have been in response to three factors. First, changes to the federal tax system and direct supply incentives have reduced the attractiveness of investing in private renting for corporations but increased it for individuals. Second, the demand for private renting has fallen amongst middle- and high-income households because of demographic and tax changes. This has reduced the numbers of private renting households able to pay the rents needed to make new construction profitable. Third, other public policies have also had an impact on supply, including rent controls imposed by provincial governments and land use planning restrictions and building standards imposed by local authorities. An important feature of the Canadian private rental market is its geographical diversity, with supply-side trends varying in different provinces and urban areas in accordance with variations in demand and local policies. Tony Crook is Professor of Town & Regional Planning and Head of Department at the University of Sheffield. His main current research interest is housing policy, especially the investment decisions of private landlords and housing associations and the relationships between housing policy and land use planning. His research work has been funded by DoE, ESRC and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It has been widely published in books and in academic and professional journals. He is currently Chair of the Conference of Heads of Planning Schools. He is also active in the worlds of policy and practice. He is a member of the RTPI Housing and Renewal Panel, trustee of two housing associations, and an independent director of one of the new Local Housing Companies.     

Supply and Demand for Low Energy Housing in the UK: Insights from a Science and Technology Studies Approach

Economic theory about supply and demand suggests that if consumer demand for a product increases then producers respond by increasing supply. In the UK housing market there is emerging evidence of consumer demand for low energy housing, yet little has been built to date by private sector housebuilders: existing low energy housing is largely within the social housing and self-build sectors. Ideas from science and technology studies (STS) are introduced to help further understanding of why the housing market might be slow to respond to changing consumer preferences. Although standard economic concepts concerning costs and price are able in part to explain the situation, greater attention to socio-technical issues highlights some of the reasons why innovation and change are difficult to effect. The housing market is best viewed as a socio-technical system, whereby the social and the technical are interlinked.     

Shifting subsidy from bricks and mortar to people: Experiences in Britain and West Germany

Since the early 1970s there has been a very similar shift in the balance of public spending on housing in Britain and Germany from general supply subsidies to demand subsidies (income related housing allowances and tax expenditures). This paper compares and contrasts the structures of those subsidy systems, the problems associated with them and current directions of change. Although there are close parallels in the shift of policy in both countries towards ‘targeting’ of explicit subsidies and in favour of greater profit‐making private provision, the environments in which this has occurred are very different. In particular, the lack of a functioning market for private rental housing in Britain—itself in part a function of tax and subsidy arrangements—severely limits the freedom of manoeuvre of British policy makers compared with their German counterparts.     

Role of state and market in housing delivery for low-income groups in India

Despite the importance of housing, it hasgenerally received very low priority in India'spublic policy and investment program, which haschanged frequently since independence in 1947. Although the government has embarked on avariety of innovative housing programs andpolicies, especially for the lower-incomesegments of the population in urban areas, thecoverage of these programs and schemes ismarginal as compared to the overall housingrequirements of the urban population. Aconcerted effort by the public and privatesectors has not been able to keep pace with thegrowing demand for urban housing, especiallythat market segment accessible to the urbanpoor. The most visible manifestations of stateand market failure are the numerousunauthorized housing settlements scattered inand around the large cities of India. Thispaper reviews the role of the state, the marketand non-governmental organizations (NGOs) inthe provision of housing for low-income groups.It is found that formal housing agencies inboth the public and the private sector areneither building fast enough to meet demand norcheaply enough to reach the poor. As aconsequence, an informal sector has emerged inalmost all cities in India.     

The significance of Swedish rental policy: Cost renting: Command economy versus the social market in comparative perspective

Recent literature on the Swedish rental system has missed the central significance of the Swedish system for international comparative purposes by neglecting the rent‐setting system and by unwittingly adopting an Anglo‐Saxon perspective. In this paper I attempt to rectify this by developing a comparative conceptual framework for the analysis of rental systems. I outline the post‐war history of the Swedish rent‐setting system, and argue that this constitutes an example of a unitary social rental market in the making, whereby public and private renting are integrated and public renting expands to become market leader for rent‐setting purposes. According to this model, public renting is allowed to compete with private renting such that its cost structure increasingly determines the rent levels on the rental market as a whole. This ‘market strategy’ constrasts to the Anglo‐Saxon model in which public renting is segregated from private renting, its growth suppressed (or even reversed through discounted sales) to prevent public renting competing with private renting and owner occupation. The ‘command policy’ uses the principles of the command economy to achieve the goal of sheltering both owner occupation and private renting from competition from a non‐profit form of rental housing. Other countries where a market policy has been adopted, such as Germany and the Netherlands, are also discussed.     

公共租赁住房供给市场效应分析

公共租赁住房供给是现阶段我国住房保障体系建设的重点,在解决特定群体住房困难的同时,公共租赁住房供给对房地产要素市场也产生作用。从公共租赁住房供给的预期目标出发,分析公共租赁住房供给在不同时期、不同市场条件下对土地市场和商品住房市场供需的作用路径,从而从宏观层面对公共租赁住房供给的市场效应进行评估,纠正公共租赁住房供给的非理性预期,为公共租赁住房供给制度的目标设计提供参考。     

Social housing management: Concerns about effectiveness and efficiency in the Netherlands

Recently a discussion flared up in the Netherlands on the effectivenessand efficiency of providers of social housing. Though most people feel that Dutch housing associations are run effectively, there are no data to underpin this conclusion. The government is not clear about the criteria for each housing association: most of the criteria are unquantified and, to some extent, contradictory. Nor is it clear whether every individual housing association has to meet these criteriato the same extent. Many more doubts have been raised about the efficiencyof social housing providers, as housing associations do not act as if theywant to maximize profits.Several suggestions have been put forward to improve efficiency: periodicalexternal visitations, benchmarking, the introduction of a Real Estate Index,and outsourcing a substantial part of the management and development activities. The main conclusion so far is that we are under-informed aboutthe efficiency of housing associations. Some advisory bodies argue that theoverall efficiency of housing associations would improve if they were transferred from the semi-public to the private sector. They claim that thedemand side of the housing market could be strengthened by the introductionof housing vouchers and suggest that housing associations opt out of the public sector.These options fail to take account of the fact that we are insufficiently informed about the efficiency of commercial players on the housing market and the inherent shortcomings of free housing markets when it comes to accessibility, affordability and quality for low-income households, externaleffects and the cherry-picking of tenants by commercial landlords. Hence, weconclude that until more information is available on the true effectivenessand efficiency of housing associations, there are good reasons to continue their current hybrid status, which combines public tasks and market activities.     

Land banking and housing prices: A comment

Conclusions It was not the intent of this note to argue the question of the efficiency of a municipal land bank compared with a private land market nor the even more difficult question of the desirability of a land bank. Rather, the focus was on the impact that a municipal land bank, operated in a variety of ways, could have on housing prices.A land banking program could effectively reduce the price of housing below that which would prevail under a competitively organized, private land market. In order to achieve this result, the municipal authority would have to provide lots as demanded and systematically sell them below the price that would prevail in a private market.A land bank which provided lots as demanded, at the private market price, would produce results in the housing market identical with those obtained under a private land market.A land bank that limited the number of lots made available would actually force the market price of housing above that which would prevail given an unconstrained private land market, regardless of the price charged for lots.This analysis was conducted in a short-run context. Extension to the long-run would affect the position of the supply schedule for new houses and thus THS, but should not alter the general conclusions.     

Investigating the New Landscapes of Welfare: Housing Policy,Politics and the Emerging Research Agenda

As debates about housing form an increasingly important arena of political controversy, much has been written about the new fissures that have appeared as governments not only struggle to reduce public expenditure deficits but also attempt to address problems such as affordability and homelessness. It is widely anticipated that new conflicts will be played out in the private rental market as access to homeownership becomes unrealistic and the supply of social housing diminishes. However, what other tensions might surface; that hitherto have not been subject to the critical gaze of housing research? In this paper, we provide some thoughts on the nascent policy issues as well as the ideological schisms that are likely to develop in coming years, offering suggestions as to how the focus of housing policy research might be reoriented towards a “politics” framework to capture and better understand the conflicts that are likely to arise.     

Renters' Housing Behaviour in Transitional Urban China

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.     

Housing Inheritance and the Private Rental Sector in Australia

The impact of housing inheritance on housing provision has been overlooked in previous work, which has concentrated on quantifying housing wealth and ascertaining whether or not it results in or contributes to social stratification. However, Australian research shows that while housing inheritance may only have modest effects on the wealth of beneficiaries, most of whom are middle-aged home owners themselves, there are important implications for the Australian private rental sector. Many beneficiaries let their inherited dwellings while those dwellings that are sold are often attractive to investors because of their often low capital value and central city location. In contrast to most investors in private rental housing, beneficiaries who become landlords are not always motivated by financial gain. The results suggest that housing inheritance may offer an opportune new source of private rental housing, although like the sector itself, the supply of dwellings from this source is not directly amenable to government control.