The Effect of Real Estate Ownership on Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

This paper constructs an ordered probit model and analyzes the relation among urban residents’ owned housing area, property rights, and subjective well-being. The results indicate that from the perspective of property rights, the area of high property right housing has a significantly positive influence on the subjective well-being of urban residents, whereas the area of medium and low property right housing has no significant impact. From a spatial standpoint, in third- and fourth-tier cities, the influence of the self-owned housing area on the subjective well-being of urban residents is significantly positive. In the first-, second-, and fifth-tier cities, self-owned housing area has no significant influence on urban residents’ subjective well-being. Finally, although increasing housing area improves well-being up to a certain threshold, the relative inequality of housing area among residents has no significant impact on urban residents’ subjective well-being.