Study On Solutions To Housing Security Problems For Middle And Low Income Urban Residents In China

This paper mainly discusses about the housing problems for those middle and low income urban residents and these problems gradually arise along with the industrialization and urbanization and with the floating of a large population to big cities. The immigrants and the middle and low income local residents constitute the target group with these housing problems. As one of the basic means of living and an important component part of household property, housing has been highly valued by our Chinese people. Housing security is a matter of concern to the people's livelihood and social stability, and therefore, it is a question not only for individuals but also for the whole society as well. Housing security plays an important role in the construction of harmonious society. In recent years, as the continuous rise of housing price and the acceleration of urbanization, there are more and more urban residents who can not afford commercial houses or flats. Housing problems increasingly stood out, which need to be tackled by the governments. It is of vital importance to examine the experience and lessons in the implementation of housing security policies, timely adjust and perfect the housing security system and tackle the housing security problems for those middle and low income urban residents.The housing security system reform in 1998 set the framework of housing supply as: commercial housing for middle and higher income households; affordable housing for middle and low income households and low-rent housing for those households in hardship. And ever since then, a series of stimulating policies and regulations have been worked out to encourage the construction of affordable and low-rent housing. But the result in the housing construction in China in recent years shows that the affordable and low-rent housing have not functioned well as expected in housing security. One reason is that the small amount of supply of these houses could not meet the needs of the great number of households, and the other reason is that these houses or flats are of such big size that only higher income households can afford them. So we still have a lot to do with housing security. Based on the summary of the development of housing security system in the past and its present situation in China, this paper puts forwards the problems of the small amount of supply, excessive big-sized house units, difficulty in determining the beneficiary groups, the malpractice of the developers and the relatively remote locations of these low-income housing in the urban low-income housing construction and management in our country. At the mean time, this paper analyses the strange phenomenon of the co-existence between high ratio of housing price to income and the high vacancy rate, indicating that our housing market is not so well developed and the market mechanism can not by itself rationally regulate the relationship between housing supply and demand due to the irrational housing construction structure, small amount of supply of cheap and small sized house units for middle and low income households, and the opportunistic practice of raising house price in market and particularly in big cities. This paper then has gone into deeper analysis of the reasons why our housing security policies could not be fully implemented because of the low initiative, inadequate investment and the monopolization of the housing market. In order to tackle these problems, this paper suggests that we should learn from the good practice in foreign countries like USA, German, Singapore and Japan, and the governments and markets need work together to make clear to whom our housing security serves. A series of measurements must also be taken as to enforce the relevant legislation, work out construction plans, perfect the financial system and increase investment from governments.The improvement of the individual credit system, the comprehensive utilization of land, the perfection of housing financing practice, the introduction of social capital and the deduction of housing cost are also of vital importance in tackling the housing security problems for urban middle and low income residents in China.