Housing Investment Under The House Purchase Quota Policies:The Occuring Mechanism And Implications

To discuss the current situation of real estate in China for formulating land/housing policies and achieving sustainable urbanization,understanding the performance and housing transactions of the housing market is critical.The study of housing investment can exactly provide an effective way to the understanding.Housing investors are often described as "black sheep" that should take the responsibility for the rise of house prices and the recession of the real economy in China.However,the voice of housing investors,which is usually neglected,is rarely being taken into consideration by researchers both inside and outside of sociology.The core question to be answered in this study is how does housing investment under the house purchase quota policies be possible in China.Specifically,the paper investigates the generation of the opportunities,the recognition of opportunities,the realization of investment and its impacts.Based on participatory observations during regular meetings and in-depth interviews with 22 house investors,and interviews with staffs in development enterprises,banks and intermediary companies,this paper describes and illustrates the way in which investors perceive housing investment,buy and sell homes under the house purchase quota policies.The findings areFirstly,the analysis suggests that as the state is the only land supplier in China and local governments has sufficient incentives to control the supply of land,the increase in housing demand cannot stimulate the increase of supply in land and houses.The housing market has been trapped into a cycle of price rising and purchase quota policies,which has resulted in "policy market" and "welfare houses",creating the foundation of profit margins and rising expectations for housing investment.Secondly,the paper suggests that personal relationship is critical in the recognition of investment opportunities.In particular,strong ties and authoritative"ultra-weak ties",through which investment information,legitimacy and strategies can be better delivered,play a key role in forming the sense of housing investment.The achievement process of housing investment goals under the purchase quota policies argues that there exists front and back stage in China's housing market:a series of purchase quota policies in the official documents lie in the front stage,while the house speculators,real estate developers and agents of governments,banks,escrow companies fight and cooperate in the back stage;the universal standard of the policies gives the housing market a legitimacy,while the backstage guarantees the reproduction of the existing social class.The paper argues that without the tacit but unexpected cooperation of government,developers,banks,escrow companies,housing investment under the restricting policies cannot be achieved.The mobilization of personal networks shows that the homogeneity of conception and identity is essential for the function of ties.Besides,there appear class differences inside housing investors in terms of the possibility of success and the risk to take.Thirdly,this study also suggests that the actions of housing investor and staffs of related companies appear to be rational,but the combined results of these actions are irrational.Under the housing purchase quota policies,the choices of qualified citizens,qualified homeowners and qualified customers unexpectedly lead to the policy failure,the reproduction of social class and irregular housing market.The paper confirms the deep involvement of Chinese local governments in the housing market.The local government acts as "entrepreneurs".However,the actual transactions and situations may be out of the government's control,and unexpected results may challenges the existing land/housing policies,which in turn affects market conditions.Our research offers new insights for understanding the interrelated individual,organizational and societal factors contributing to housing investment under purchase quota policies and provokes discussion on the possibilities for housing policies,which can provide a new perspective for rethinking the phenomenon of house investment,and also can enrich the existing research of the relations of government and market.The exploration of the way people think and act under property purchase restriction policies will provide empirical and theoretical foundations for further regulating housing market order and adjusting housing policies.