Reform of China's Housing and Land Systems: The Development Process and Outlook of the Real Estate Industry in China

Abstract

Since the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, its real estate has closely followed reforms in economic, land and housing systems. There have been two critical junctures since the advent of the Reform and Opening-Up policy in 1978: the introduction of housing monetization in 1998 and the reinstatement of low-income housing in 2007. Those two junctures divide the development of China's real estate industry into three stages, namely the embryonic period of housing marketization (1978–1997), rapid development period (1998–2006) and integrated development period (2007–2016). Report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017 affirms that “housing is for living in, not for speculation,” marking a new development stage for China's real estate industry. It is expected that innovations in land system, housing system and macro-control will promote the development of China's real estate in the future.