Preferences and Barriers of Vulnerable Urban Populations in Affordable Housing in Urban China
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149, Issue 4
Abstract
Housing prices have skyrocketed in China’s major cities, resulting in a lack of housing affordability and intensifying urban inequality. Taking college graduates, migrant workers, and low-income families as the representatives of vulnerable populations in urban housing, this paper analyzes their preferences and barriers toward affordable housing programs in Nanjing, China. We find that China’s affordable housing development and policies still lag far behind the need of vulnerable populations, and there is a mismatch between affordable housing needs and preferences. Rural migrants without local household registration (hukou) who need housing subsidies the most are significantly disadvantaged in current affordable housing policies focusing on local low-income families. Our regression analysis provides insight into the main dissatisfactions and barriers to affordable housing projects and identifies that the policy issues rather than the supply side are the most critical factors. Although migrant workers show a greater preference for affordable housing than other vulnerable populations, they are largely shut out because of exclusionary affordable housing policies. More efforts are needed to improve affordable housing projects, and affordable housing policies should consider the heterogeneous housing preferences of vulnerable populations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions.
References
Arku, G. 2006. “The housing and economic development debate revisited: Economic significance of housing in developing countries.” J. Hous. Built Environ. 21 (4): 377–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-006-9056-3.
Bian, T. Y., and P. Gete. 2015. “What drives housing dynamics in China? A sign restrictions VAR approach.” J. Macroecon. 46: 96–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2015.08.004.
Bontje, M. 2016. “At home in Shenzhen? Housing opportunities and housing preferences of creative workers in a wannabe creative city.” Creativity Stud. 9 (2): 160–176. https://doi.org/10.3846/23450479.2016.1203832.
Celhay, P. A., and D. Gil. 2020. “The function and credibility of urban slums: Evidence on informal settlements and affordable housing in Chile.” Cities 99: 102605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102605.
Chang, K. C., M. Wen, and G. Wang. 2011. “Social capital and work among rural-to-urban migrants in China.” Asian Popul. Stud. 7 (3): 275–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2011.608989.
Chen, Y., Y. Dang, and G. Dong. 2020. “An investigation of migrants” residential satisfaction in Beijing.” Urban Stud. 57 (3): 563–582. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019836918.
Chen, J., Z. Yang, and Y. P. Wang. 2014. “The new Chinese model of public housing: A step forward or backward?.” Hous. Stud. 29 (4): 534–550. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2013.873392.
Chen, M., W. Zhang, and D. Lu. 2015. “Examining spatial pattern and location choice of affordable housing in Beijing, China: Developing a workable assessment framework.” Urban Stud. 52 (10): 1846–1863. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014542133.
Ezennia, I. S., and S. O. Hoskara. 2019. “Exploring the severity of factors influencing sustainable affordable housing choice: Evidence from Abuja, Nigeria.” Sustainability 11 (20): 5792. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205792.
Fan, Y., R. Allen, and T. Sun. 2014. “Spatial mismatch in Beijing, China: Implications of job accessibility for Chinese low-wage workers.” Habitat Int. 44: 202–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2014.06.002.
Fang, Y., and Z. Zhang. 2016. “Migrant household homeownership outcomes in large Chinese cities - the sustained impact of hukou.” Eurasian Geogr. Econ. 57 (2): 203–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2016.1228075.
Fisher, L. M., H. O. Pollakowski, and J. Zabel. 2009. “Amenity-based housing affordability indexes.” Real Estate Econ. 37 (4): 705–746. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6229.2009.00261.x.
Freeman, L., and J. Schuetz. 2017. “Producing affordable housing in rising markets: What works?” Cityscape 19 (1): 217–236.
Gabriel, S., and G. Painter. 2020. “Why affordability matters.” Reg. Sci. Urban Econ. 80: 103378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2018.07.001.
Galster, G., and K. O. Lee. 2021. “Introduction to the special issue of the Global crisis in housing affordability.” Int. J. Urban Sci. 25 (sup1): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2020.1847433.
Gan, C., B. Hu, C. Gao, B. Kao, and D. A. Cohen. 2013. “An empirical analysis of homeownership in urban China.” J. Asia Bus. Stud. 8 (1): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-01-2012-0005.
Goetz, E. G. 2011. “Where have all the towers gone? The dismantling of public housing in U.S. cities.” J. Urban Aff. 33 (3): 267–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2011.00550.x.
Gurran, N., and C. Whitehead. 2011. “Planning and affordable housing in Australia and the UK: A comparative perspective.” Hous. Stud. 26 (7–8): 1193–1214. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2011.618982.
Hancock, K. E. 1993. “‘Can Pay? won’t Pay?” Or economic principles of “Affordability’.” Urban Stud. 30 (1): 127–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420989320080081.
Hu, F. Z., and J. Qian. 2017. “Land-based finance, fiscal autonomy and land supply for affordable housing in urban China: A prefecture-level analysis.” Land Use Policy 69: 454–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.09.050.
Hu, H., J. Xu, and X. Zhang. 2020. “The role of housing wealth, financial wealth, and social welfare in elderly households” consumption behaviors in China.” Cities 96: 102437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102437.
Huang, Y., and L. Jiang. 2009. “Housing inequality in transitional Beijing.” Int. J. Urban Reg. Res. 33 (4): 936–956. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00890.x.
Huang, Y., and J. Ren. 2022. “Moving toward an inclusive housing policy?: Migrants” access to subsidized housing in urban China.” Hous. Policy Debate 32 (4–5): 579–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2021.1996430.
Jana, A., R. Bardhan, S. Sarkar, and V. Kumar. 2016. “Framework to assess and locate affordable and accessible housing for developing nations: Empirical evidences from Mumbai.” Habitat Int. 57: 88–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2016.07.005.
Kang, S., and J. K. Jeon. 2021. “Toward suburbs: Examining neighborhood-level changes in naturally occurring affordable housing stock in Florida, USA.” Cities 116: 103267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103267.
Lee, C. C., Y. M. Ho, and H. Y. Chiu. 2016. “Role of personal conditions, housing properties, private loans, and housing tenure choice.” Habitat Int. 53: 301–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.11.016.
Li, H., Y. D. Wei, and Y. Wu. 2019. “Analyzing the private rental housing market in Shanghai with open data.” Land Use Policy 85: 271–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.04.004.
Libertun de Duren, N. R. 2018. “Why there? Developers” rationale for building social housing in the urban periphery in Latin America.” Cities 72: 411–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.10.006.
Liu, Y., P. Fan, W. Yue, and Y. Song. 2018. “Impacts of land finance on urban sprawl in China: The case of Chongqing.” Land Use Policy 72: 420–432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.01.004.
Liu, Y., and J. Shen. 2014. “Jobs or amenities? Location choices of interprovincial skilled migrants in China, 2000–2005.” Popul. Space Place 20 (7): 592–605. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1803.
Liu, Z., and L. Ma. 2021. “Residential experiences and satisfaction of public housing renters in Beijing, China: A before-after relocation assessment.” Cities 113: 103148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103148.
Lyu, H., Z. Dong, M. Roobavannan, J. Kandasamy, and S. Pande. 2019. “Rural unemployment pushes migrants to urban areas in Jiangsu Province, China.” Palgrave Commun. 5 (1): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0199-0.
MacLachlan, I., and Y. Gong. 2023. “Community formation in talent worker housing: The case of Silicon Valley Talent Apartments, Shenzhen.” Urban Geogr. 44 (4): 707–728. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.2021368.
Nijskens, R., M. Lohuis, P. Hilbers, and R. Heeringa. eds. 2019. Hot property. Cham: Springer.
Olanrewaju, A., and T. C. Woon. 2017. “An exploration of determinants of affordable housing choice.” Int. J. Hous. Mark. Anal. 10 (5): 703–723. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-11-2016-0074.
Pugh, C. 2001. “The theory and practice of housing sector development for developing countries, 1950-99.” Hous. Stud. 16 (4): 399–423. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030120066527.
Radzimski, A. 2014. “Subsidized mortgage loans and housing affordability in Poland.” Geoj. 79 (4): 467–494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-014-9533-2.
Riazi, M., and A. Emami. 2018. “Residential satisfaction in affordable housing: A mixed method study.” Cities 82: 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.04.013.
Sharma, M. 2016. “The housing market and population vulnerabilities: Perceptions in a fordist and a post-fordist context.” Geogr. Rev. 106 (4): 588–613. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2016.12201.x.
Shi, W., J. Chen, and H. Wang. 2016. “Affordable housing policy in China: New developments and new challenges.” Habitat Int. 54: 224–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.11.020.
Stone, M. E. 2006. “What is housing affordability? The case for the residual income approach” Hous. Policy Debate 17 (1): 151–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2006.9521564.
Tighe, J. R. 2010. “Public opinion and affordable housing: A review of the literature.” J. Plann. Lit. 25 (1): 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412210379974.
Wang, H., F. Yuan, Y. D. Wei, W. Chen, and L. Wang. 2021. “Understanding spatial and compositional dynamics of employment centers in urban China: Empirical evidence from Nanjing.” Growth Change 52: 2635–2661. https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.12529.
Wang, W. W., and C. C. Fan. 2012. “Migrant workers” integration in urban China: Experiences in employment, social adaptation, and self-identity.” Eurasian Geogr. Econ. 53 (6): 731–749. https://doi.org/10.2747/1539-7216.53.6.731.
Wang, Y. 2012. “Housing the urban poor in a marketised system in China.” Urban Policy Res. 30 (4): 423–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2012.738192.
Wu, J., J. Gyourko, and Y. Deng. 2012. “Evaluating conditions in major Chinese housing markets.” Reg. Sci. Urban Econ. 42 (3): 531–543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2011.03.003.
Wu, L., and W. Zhang. 2018. “Rural migrants” homeownership in Chinese urban destinations: Do institutional arrangements still matter after Hukou reform?” Cities 79: 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.03.004.
Wu, W. 2004. “Sources of migrant housing disadvantage in urban China.” Environ. Plann. A: Econ. Space 36 (7): 1285–1304. https://doi.org/10.1068/a36193.
Wu, W., W. Y. Chen, Y. Yun, F. Wang, and Z. Gong. 2022a. “Urban greenness, mixed land-use, and life satisfaction: Evidence from residential locations and workplace settings in Beijing.” Landscape Urban Plann. 224: 104428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104428.
Wu, W., and G. Wang. 2021. “Shifting residential and employment geography: Shanghai’s bifurcated trajectory of spatial restructuring.” Cities 113: 103142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103142.
Wu, Y., Y. D. Wei, H. Li, and M. Liu. 2022b. “Amenity, firm agglomeration, and local creativity of producer services in Shanghai.” Cities 120: 103421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103421.
Xiao, W., Y. D. Wei, and Y. Wu. 2022. “Neighborhood, built environment and resilience in transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic.” J. Transp. Res. D: Transp. Environ. 110: 103428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2022.103428.
Xiao, W., and Y. D. Wei. 2023. “Assess the non-linear relationship between built environment and active travel around light-rail transit stations.” Appl. Geogr. 151: 102862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2022.102862.
Xiao, W., Y. D. Wei, and W. Chen. 2023. “Skills mismatch, jobs-housing relationship and urban commuting.” Travel Behav. Soc. 33: 100610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2023.100610.
Yeung, S. C. W., and R. Howes. 2006. “The role of the housing provident fund in financing affordable housing development in China.” Habitat Int. 30 (2): 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2004.02.007.
Yuan, F., J. Wu, Y. D. Wei, and L. Wang. 2018. “Policy change, amenity, and spatiotemporal dynamics of housing prices in Nanjing, China.” Land Use Policy 75: 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.045.
Zeng, W., P. Rees, and L. Xiang. 2019. “Do residents of affordable housing communities in China suffer from relative accessibility deprivation? A case study of Nanjing” Cities 90: 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.01.038.
Zhang, C., S. Jia, and R. Yang. 2016. “Housing affordability and housing vacancy in China: The role of income inequality.” J. Hous. Econ. 33: 4–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2016.05.005.
Zou, Y. 2014. “Contradictions in China’s affordable housing policy: Goals vs. structure.” Habitat Int. 41: 8–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.06.001.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 149 • Issue 4 • December 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 23, 2022
Accepted: May 24, 2023
Published online: Jul 21, 2023
Published in print: Dec 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 21, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Contracts and subcontracts
- Economic factors
- Employment
- Engineering fundamentals
- Housing
- Infrastructure
- Labor
- Personnel management
- Population projection
- Practice and Profession
- Pricing
- Project management
- Regression analysis
- Statistical analysis (by type)
- Sustainable development
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.