Comparative Research Of Housing Problem

Currently, China has entered a crucial period in the process of reform anddevelopment. As a result, dramatic changes have been witnessed in the economicsystem, social structure, interest pattern and ideology, which has brought enormousvitality as well as problems to the economic and social development. Therefore,issues concerning people’s livelihood, such as house price, educational equality,ecosystem and social security, have become increasingly prominent, whoseresolution will reinforce the establishment of a harmonious society.Housing problems has been highlighted as the key issue in social constructionin the Report to the Seventeenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China.The situation of basic necessities of life, food, clothing, housing and transportation,can directly influence people’s living standard, cost, experience and expectation. Andthe constant improvement in all these necessities is the essential part in developmentof human society. Only with the solving of housing problems can people live inpeace and enjoy their work.Housing problem is not only related to people’s lives but also to economy andpolitics, which has a great impact on people’s living condition, economicdevelopment and social stability. Governments all over the world have regarded it asan important issue and tried every means to achieve improvement these aspects.As an essential part in the reform of economic system, the reforms in China’shousing market will greatly improve the people’s living condition, promote theprosperity of the real estate industry and related industries and markets andaccelerate the national economic development. However, with the ever-increasingprice and a lack of affordable housing projects, the low-income group and thedisadvantaged group will never buy their own houses without the financial aid of thegovernment, which means a single market mechanism can not cater for differentneeds of all residents and government surely has a role to play.Likewise, similar problems also arise in the early period of transformation in those central and eastern European countries like Poland, Hungary and CzechRepublic where market economy has taken the place of planned economy. In thedissertation, the author analyses the evolvement of the reforms and policies andwould like to expound the governments’ roles and responsibilities in dealing with theexisting problems in order to realize the entitled right of every member in thesociety.This dissertation consists of three parts:Part one raises the topic, explains the significance of the study, and presents aliterature review and introduces the structure and methodology.Part two includes chapter two, chapter three and four, which respectivelyintroduces housing policies and the evolvement of housing reform, points out thathousing market enhances the efficiency of construction and allotment and also takenotice of the needs of low-income and disadvantaged groups. In addition, thegovernments’ intervention and generous grants show the change in the orientationtowards people’s life.Poland has the biggest area and the most population among these threecountries. Due to World WarⅡ, plenty of houses in Poland were destroyed whichlead to the serious shortage of housing. The reform in housing market made housesconstruction recovered and kept developed, which has bettered the people’s livingcondition. Meanwhile, the Polish government carried out the long-term affordablehousing policy which included that TBS was responsible for building andarrangement of the house, and the government set up different sort of funds toprovide preferential loans, supporting construction of the affordable housing. Themeasures taken by the Polish government were the most prominent among the threetransforming countries.The reform in housing market in Czech Republic caused that the houses havebeen provided by the housing market instead of the government which builded anddistributed the houses before the reform. The improvement in living condition andthe increasing invigoration in real estate market in Czech Republic were broughtabout during the reform in housing market proceeding. Since2000, the Czechgovernment has been aware that housing problem cannot be sovled only by the market, and that the low-income group and the disadvantaged group must obtainthe financial aid to get their own living houses. In the three countries, Czech housingpolicy were set upon the people’s livelihood，and the affordable housing policyattained the best effect. Czech affordable housing policy made the housingconstruction positioned to family living different level, and assured the fairness ofthe housing distribution.In Hungary, there is tradition for the family to possess their own house, andbefore the social transformation, the percentage of family owning houses kept thehighest level among the three countries. Hungarian reform in housing market paidattention to variety of financing instruments, and offered sorts of subsidiaries toencourage family to have their own house. As the result of the house privatizing andmarketing, the affordable houses decreased dramatically, almost depleted. Since2000, Hungarian government has been aware of the seriousness that the scarity ofaffordable housing cannot cater for the demands of the low-income group and thedisadvantaged group, and proposed a lot of programs to sustain the affordablehousing. However, some of the programs succeeded, some failed, Hungariangovernment has never given up support of the affordable housing construction, paidclose attention to change in demand of housing of the low-income group and thedisadvantaged group, and taken efforts to achieve the goal of each family havinghouse to live..Part three contains chapter five, which compares the housing markets’characteristics and related policies, analyzes the different focuses of individualgovernment and makes recommendations to the housing reform in China.