Housing Wealth Status and Informal Accumulation of Rural Villages at the Rural-Urban Fringe in Shanghai, China

Jin Xie,Hang Tang,Yinying Cai,Yuanqin Liao

doi:10.3390/su12176859

Abstract

Housing wealth among urban residents has been a hotspot issue, but there is a dearth of literature focusing on rural housing wealth. Using housing registration data in Shanghai, this study examines the status and accumulation of rural housing wealth at the rural-urban fringe. Results show that rural housing wealth at the rural-urban fringe is characterized by high stock and frequent extension and reconstruction dominated by auxiliary houses. Rural housing wealth is still relatively equitable, but compared to their initial housing wealth distribution, disparities in urban villages or suburban villages are obviously higher than in the outer suburbs. These disparities are mainly driven by the expansion and reconstruction of rural auxiliary houses, typically the horizontal expansion of auxiliary homes. We suggest that defining explicit construction rules for rural auxiliary will help to avoid the disorder increase in illegal housing and, subsequently, rural housing wealth disparity.

Highlights

Since the reform and opening up of land development more than 40 years ago, urban land use has transferred from incremental expansion to inventory optimization, tapping into potential and intensive use, promoting high-quality and sustainable development
The large scale of rural residential land in urban villages and suburban villages at the rural-urban fringe offers a major way for local governments to revitalize stock construction land and overcome bottlenecks in urban development space [1,2]
This study aims to provide an assessment of housing wealth disparity at the rural-urban fringe, and offers a detailed explanation for the formation of preliminary differentiation in accumulation

Summary

Introduction

Since the reform and opening up of land development more than 40 years ago, urban land use has transferred from incremental expansion to inventory optimization, tapping into potential and intensive use, promoting high-quality and sustainable development. The large scale of rural residential land in urban villages and suburban villages at the rural-urban fringe offers a major way for local governments to revitalize stock construction land and overcome bottlenecks in urban development space [1,2]. The total amount of construction land in rural China, whose land layout is scattered, disorganized and intermixed with extensive uses, is 4.6 times the total amount of construction land available in cities (http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2006-02/18/content_203328.htm). Some rural residential areas are as much as 300 m2 per capita, far exceeding the national standard ceiling (http://www.gov.cn/ zhengce/content/2017-02/04/content_5165309.htm). Rural housing refers to the housing invested in and constructed by rural families relying on homesteads collectively distributed to community members, a basic residential security and welfare system granted to farmers in China [3].

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