Evolution of transitional institutions for urban land redevelopment in China—Case in Guangzhou

Abstract

Building effective institutions for markets is a great challenge to China’s transitional economy. China’s experience in establishing urban land markets is characterized by trial and error and the gradual evolution of transitional institutions. Based on archive data and interviews in a neighborhood (Jinhuajie) of Guangzhou, this research reveals that China’s land redevelopment in the past two decades has followed an approach of partial and gradual reform, which was structured by the gradual evolution of transitional institutions to speed up local land redevelopment within the existing property rights system. Transitional institutions, including highly compensated residents’ land use rights, in-kind land lease payment, flexible control on development rights of developers and short-term actual ownership of work units, are generated by the local government sequentially to dispel existing land use rights of different land users and make further development be able to follow market mechanisms.