Housing Tenure Segment in Transitional China : a Case Study of Guangzhou

Abstract

Housing reform in urban China aims to introduce market mechanisms into previously welfare-oriented housing system. Housing system in transitional urban China has dual characteristics of both market and planned economy with relatively complex structures of housing provision and housing tenure. To explore the features of housing spatial segment in transitional urban China by using a survey data conducted in Guangzhou in 2005, multi-level logistic regressions of housing choice between rent and own, between subsidized housing and open market housing, and between rent and own in subsidized housing and open market housing respectively, were performed. The results show that housing segment between rent and own depends more on household characteristics than institutional variable and age (head), hukou (household registration) types, household income and educational level are leading factors affecting this choice. Institutional variables are evidently more significant to affect housing segment between subsidized and open market housing because of different allocation rules of them. Residents with subsidized housing generally hold higher-status occupations, and have longer years of service and work in state-owned enterprises, collective enterprises and government departments. It is somewhat in line with the housing segment in market economy that household characteristics, especially life cycle change and household income, significantly affect tenure choice in open market housing, but tenure choice in subsidized housing depends more on institutional variables.