Commodity Housing Research Articles

Intraurban Residential Relocation in Shanghai: Modes and Stratification

Housing marketisation provides an opportunity for households to choose their residences. However, not all households benefit equally from residential relocation. This paper uses a recent residential survey in Shanghai to examine different relocation modes and their implications for housing consumption. The findings suggest that better education, absence of work-unit affiliation, higher expectation for housing consumption, and the move from the outer to inner areas are more likely to be associated with active relocation through commodity housing purchase. Residential relocation in urban China has a stronger association with the household's position within the spectrum from state redistribution to market reward than with life cycles and consequent adjustment of housing demand which are the primary reasons for residential mobility in a mature market. Household income, the educational level, and previous housing space are determinants of changing housing consumption. Intraurban residential relocation gives a higher return to those who are better educated and who have been already in possession of larger living space, and to the move from outer to inner areas. Active relocation and workplace-housing allocation generate higher space returns to households than do other modes of relocation. Whereas pragmatic concerns for social stability plus strong tenancy rights help inner-city households gain compensation in residential relocation, urban redevelopment generates the lowest space return. Residential displacement is now becoming a contentious issue. As such, residential relocation is a process that differentiates urban space under market transition.

Housing Tenure And Residential Mobility In Urban China

Twenty-plus years of reform have brought about a highly complex system of housing tenure in urban China. Although the traditional work unit housing under rental occupancy remains the dominating tenure mode, an increasing number of urban households have become owners under various forms of subsidized homeownership. The author analyzes data derived from a survey conducted in 1996 of movers to newly completed “commodity housing” in Beijing and Guangzhou. Findings show that despite the many attempts at privatization and commodification, private housing in Beijing has become almost nonexistent. In Guangzhou, the open-market sector is better developed, and a sizable number of households have opted to move from subsidized to nonsubsidized housing. The findings also reveal that although the direction of movement is significantly related to the current tenure, it is unrelated to whether the move involves a change in tenure status.

THE PERCEIVED ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF COMMODITY HOUSING IN CHINA: GUANGZHOU AND BEIJING CASE STUDY

The study investigates resident satisfaction with commodity housing in Guangzhou and Beijing. The Perceived Environmental Quality Scale (PEQS) is adopted as a yardstick. The data were gathered during two household surveys conducted in Guangzhou and Beijing in 1995 and 1996 respectively. The data revealed that residents appraise neighbourhood quality more positively than housing unit quality. The more dissatisfying aspects include the lack of privacy, and the insufficient lighting and ventilation of housing units. Residents were also unhappy about the management of housing estates. The findings of this study should be beneficial to those aiming to ensure that the planning and design of future commodity housing projects are geared to the needs of their consumers.

Residential Mobility and Urban Restructuring under Market Transition: A Study of Guangzhou, China

Residential mobility can be conceptualized as an outcome of a choice process exercised under complex institutional and personal constraints. China's rather unique pattern of housing market segmentation under market transition impinges directly on residential location and relocation. Drawing upon data from a sample survey, this paper analyzes the pattern of residential moves resulting from commodity housing construction in a major Chinese city, Guangzhou. Most moves are of short distance, although the general direction is towards the urban periphery. Danweis and the municipal housing bureau, rather than the market per se, are the primary driving forces behind suburbanization in China today.

Commodity housing construction and intra-urban migration in Beijing

Based on a survey of households conducted in 1996, this study analyses the pattern of residential moves resulting from commodity housing development in Beijing. While short-distance moves were important, a large proportion of the moves recorded were of longer distance. A clear suburbanisation trend is discerned. The work units and the housing bureaux to a significant extent still controlled residential location and relocation in the city, even though housing in the primary market had become a commodity. A logistic regression analysis of the data shows that people who relied on the work units for housing were more inclined to end up in the outer city districts, whereas people who depended on the housing bureaux for welfare housing were more likely to be provided with inner city residences. The results also indicate the continued importance of membership of the Chinese Communist Party and its powerful influence on residential location.

Housing Consumption in Urban China: A Comparative Study of Beijing and Guangzhou

The Chinese government has made repeated attempts to end the so-called welfare provision of housing so as to reduce the burden on the state and the individual work units. Development companies have been set up to undertake housing construction and the housing units sold as commodities; these are referred to as ‘commodity housing’. The author conducts a comparative study of housing consumption in Beijing and Guangzhou, drawing upon two surveys of newly completed commodity housing conducted in 1996. In Beijing, which is dominated by the traditional socialist system of economic and social organisation, only a tiny portion of such housing is traded on the open market. In Guangzhou, where many of the market-oriented reform measures were first experimented with, the open market already accounts for a substantial proportion of the newly constructed stock. In both Beijing and Guangzhou, however, the work unit still constitutes the single most important buyer and distributor of commodity housing. Further, if the analysis is restricted to the subsidised sectors, which also include housing managed by the municipal housing bureau and resettlement housing, a comparison of the two samples reveals quite similar differential factors underlying housing consumption in the two cities, despite their difference in social and economic structure. The traditional redistributive system still exerts tremendous influence on housing consumption, even in cities renowned for their openness and market orientation. Certain differences in the results between the two cities are also revealed. For example, seniority is important only in Beijing, whereas professional and technical workers assume a special position only in Guangzhou. These differences point towards the importance of contextual considerations in the study of housing consumption in China.

The Housing Market and Tenure Decisions in Chinese Cities: A Multivariate Analysis of the Case of Guangzhou

sing a sample of recently completed 'commodity housing' in Guangzhou, i.e. dwellings that were built by development companies and sold or rented at full market price in the primary market, a multi-level logit analysis of the housing allocation process and of tenure decisions was conducted. The results of the statistical analysis are generally in line with the nature of housing market segmentation and the forces governing housing allocation and consumption in China in general and Guangzhou in particular. Residents in open market housing generally have higher incomes and hold higher-status jobs than those in the subsidised sectors. However, at the same time, the getihu or petty traders, who rank low in terms of occupational status, are also likely to be occupants of open market housing. Household characteristics also show systematic variations between occupants of different types of subsidised housing. In particular, residents of resettlement housing tend to occupy lower-status jobs. In terms of tenure choice, the results for the open market housing residents are to some extent consistent with studies conducted in market economies. In the subsidised sectors, the factors underlying homeownership are quite different between housing types. Occupation, for example, has significant effects on homeownership in both work unit housing and housing bureau housing, but the nature of the influence is quite different in each case. In the case of resettlement housing, none of the household attributes, with the exception of the head's year of service in present employment organisation, was found to be significant.

Housing Choice Behavior of Urban Workers in China's Transition to a Housing Market

Restoring demand for commodity housing is crucial for the success of housing reform in previously centrally planned economies; yet weaning workers away from publicly subsidized housing is a difficult task. Taking advantage of a unique survey, we show that the intention to buy commodity housing by Chinese urban workers is sensitive to various incentives, including housing mismatch, liquidity constraints, risk attitudes, access to publicly subsidized housing, and commodity housing prices. Our probit estimates indicate that the access to publicly subsidized housing is at least as important as the affordability of commodity housing in discouraging private home ownership.

Market Segmentation and Consumer Characteristics of Commodity Housing in Guangzhou: An Analysis of Household Survey Data

The housing reform in China aims at commodification and privatization of urban housing. Using data from a household survey conducted in Guangzhou, the present paper examines the relationship between a household's socio-economic characteristics and the source of housing provision, and the factors governing the tenure form. The results show that households with different sets of characteristics are associated with particular housing types, defined with reference to the source of provision, and that owners and renters differ systematically in socio-economic characteristics. Open market housing residents earn the highest income, work mainly as managers in enterprises of various ownership types or as proprietors of petty trades, and are the youngest among residents of all types of housing. Those in work unit housing are the best educated, and work mainly as managers in state-owned enterprises. Those in housing bureau housing and resettlement housing are relatively old, less well educated, earn lower incomes and work mainly as technical and manual workers. With regard to the tenure mode, owners are likely to be those who are better educated, earn higher incomes, relatively young, work mainly as managers or are proprietors of petty trades, and have longer years of service in their present employment than renters. The results also show a rather high degree of privatization in the housing sector in Guangzhou and the rapid development of its open market housing sector. However, the ownership rate is low in the work unit housing sector, which suggests the need for further reform, if promotion of homeownership is an end.

Petty commodity housing or dweller control? A critique of John Turner's views on housing policy

The paper reviews four major aspects of John Turner's work on low-income housing: his conception of the nature of housing; the relationship he identifies between the popular, government and private sectors; his concept of the role of the State and the planner; and, his policy recommendations. These are all subjected to a critical examination, and a Marxist framework is suggested as a more effective means of analysing the problems and policies under discussion. The debate between ‘state-assisted self-help’ and ‘official housing’ policies is situated in the context of the conflicting interests of the different fractions of capital tied to the housing process. Turner's policies, it is argued, could only be implemented alongside rather than instead of, existing State policies, and never on the scale and in the manner considered critical to their success.

Corona detector for high-voltage equipment

With the further promotion of green buildings in China, the adoption of green building technology (GBT) to improve building performance is a new requirement. Meanwhile, government-financed affordable housing to address the housing problems of a large number of low-income residents and migrant workers is in high demand. The specific service attributes of affordable housing determine its typical characteristics of low construction costs, its compact nature and short construction period, which distinguish it from commodity housing. However, the current research on the suitability of GBT mainly focused on individual technologies, or lack the capability to evaluate a given GBT system from a comprehensive performance aspect. According to the requirements of green affordable housing, this study established a multi-objective suitability evaluation model with maturity, economy and environmental load and quality as evaluation indexes. Based on 43 cases of green-certified residential communities in China’s Zhejiang province, this study screened 37 common GBTs and evaluated them using the aforenamed model. As a result, a list of suitable GBTs was obtained, among which 11 technologies were identified as the optimal GBTs for affordable housing, capable of improving the performance of buildings without unduly increasing their economic burden and construction difficulty. The results of this study provide clear guidance for affordable housing and GBT selection during the design and construction processes.