Study On The Housing Problem For "Sandwich Class"

In1998, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China handed down a document,"The circular on further developing the reform of urban housing system and speed up the housing construction", marking the end of the era of welfare housing distribution, establishes a new housing system which take the market as the characteristic. From2010, the central government intensified housing regulation and control, and made great efforts to build indemnificatory housing so as to ensure the basic housing demand of the low-income groups. But for people who earn more money than the threshold of security housing application, but still unable to afford the commodity housing find themselves in an awkward position of so-called "sandwich class". Their housing demand is overlooked.From a survey of the "sandwich class" people’s housing condition, like whether their house is bought or rented, how much do they spend on renting or buying, per capita housing area and the commute time, we get the results that53.5%of the people are living in rental houses, and only14.2%of the people have bought their own houses. The latter shoulder a great pressure, since their housing repayment accounted for more than45%their own income. Most of the "sandwich class" shares the rental houses with others, and72.4%of the interviewees’housing area is20square meters or less, less than the average level of local town’s residents. Their housing condition is tougher.The survey shows that77.1%of the people are willing to buy a house, but their income greatly lag behind the high housing prices, so they do not have a specific housing purchase plan.88.1%of the interviewees are willing to buy a house with per square meter price lower than10000Yuan. That figure is far below the lowest prices in large cities, like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Even if some of the "sandwich class" people’s income has increased, they still cannot afford the commodity housing. In short, the "sandwich class" people are unsatisfied with their current housing condition, and they have the demand to buy a house but cannot afford the cost. Their housing demand will not be met in short terms.The social contradictions in the transitional era are very complex, and the birth of the "sandwich class" people attributes to four reasons:One, the function of the central government and the society weakened and civil elites dominated the reform, resulting in unequal distribution of resources. Two, the inadequate understanding of the low-and-middle income groups lead to the incompletion of indemnificatory housing. Their interest appeal is misunderstood, and their demand is overlooked. Three, the improper adjustment gives rise to the loophole in the urban housing supply system, which brings out the "sandwich class" groups; Four, the incompletion of our housing system leads to the blank area in indemnificatory housing. There is no reasonable design and sound system, let alone legal provisions and statistical methods, resulting in distortion of the housing policy in transmission, thus the effect of the policy greatly reduced.From the analysis of the public housing policy in the developed countries in Europe, America and Asia, we find out that safeguard of the national public housing policy includes:a intact legal system, the system of planning, specialized agencies, income statistics standards, the constant economic and social development are, and the adjustment of the housing policy.For the educated sandwich class people, metropolis means more job opportunities and broad prospects for development. They cannot leave the city, nor can they go back home, so their housing demand should not be ignored. In the end, the author brings forward some suggestions to tackle the problem of "sandwich class" people’s housing condition:Accelerating the legislation, and improving housing supply and management system; improving housing supply system to provide multi-level security; relaxing the criteria, especially breaking down household registration system, to ensure that fairness of indemnificatory housing; perfecting housing rental market by introduction of buying after renting and shared ownership to ensure the basic housing demand of sandwich people, help those who are capable of improving their living condition to buy their own house by a combination of renting and buying.