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Pathways to homeownership in urban China: transitions and generational fractures

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Abstract

Within a relatively short span of four decades, China has transformed itself from a country dominated by renters of public housing to a country with one of the world’shighest rates of homeownership. Radical reforms of the housing provision system have created a variety of housing pathways for different generations. Against this background, this paper adopts the ‘state–market–family triad’ in Esping-Andersen’s welfare state regime to examine three main pathways to homeownership: market-acquired, public-subsidised and family-supported, with a particular focus on the differences between generations. Based on data from the 2013 China Households Finance Survey, the empirical analysis verifies the transition to a more liberal housing system, in which the responsibility for housing provision has shifted from the state to the market. Meanwhile, families have become a vital social institution assisting young cohorts to achieve homeownership. The results also show that men are more likely to turn to family for housing support, a practice that reflects Chinese traditions. Moreover, the findings show that higher educational attainment has enhanced people’s independence from both the state and the family in terms of acquiring a home, and that institutional factors—particularly hukou status— largely determine people’s access to public-subsidised housing.

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Funding

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 41701176) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2018ECNU-QKT001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Centre for Modern Chinese City Studies & School of Urban and Regional Science & Insitute of Eco-Chongming, East China Normal University, North Zhongshan Road 3663, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Can Cui

  2. School of Tourism and Land resources, Chongqqing Technology and Business University, Chongqqing, China

    Wenjing Deng

  3. School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University & China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Tingting Lu

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  1. Can Cui
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Cui, C., Deng, W. & Lu, T. Pathways to homeownership in urban China: transitions and generational fractures. J Hous and the Built Environ 36, 9–27 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-019-09664-0

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