The scale and pace of change in Shanghai combine to provide a fascinating case study of affordability in a dynamic transitional market. This study has enhanced conventional indicators to capture more fully the different dimensions of affordability for new market entrants. Three dimensions of affordability are simulated (namely access, the burden of housing costs and housing-induced poverty) and two dynamic indicators are developed to simulate the experience of successive cohorts of market entrants. The ‘point-of-entry’ trend simulates changing affordability as each successive cohort of entrants first enters the housing market, while the ‘cohort’ trend identifies the evolution of affordability within each cohort after entry has been attained. While on average the ‘point of entry’ trend indicates a decline in affordability for each cohort of market entrants, the ‘cohort’ trend improves considerably within a short period of time, although there are differences between income groups. The findings have policy implications concerning the nature, extent and duration of housing subsidies for different income groups.

After three decades of housing reform, Chinese government embarked on a large-scale expansion of public housing provision over the last few years. This very ambitious plan of public housing construction aims at reducing the negative impacts from global economic slowdown since 2008; at the same time, tackling the huge inflation in and achieve the harmonious society development strategy. This initiative signals a sharp change in housing policy from that in previous decades. It also put China on a different track in housing provision when many other countries tried to cut back public spending to maintain economic stability. This paper aims to provide a timely analysis of the recent resurgence of public housing sector in urban China by examining the policy framework, the new structure of provision, and the driving forces behind this new initiative. We will also assess the similarities and differences of this approach from the Chinese pre-reform housing system and public housing practice in other industrialized countries.

Based on a large, nationwide, household-level survey data set collected in 2014, this article investigates the effect of economic incentives on the destination choices of Chinese new-generation rural migrants. Empirical results show that economic incentives have a significant positive impact on the probability of rural migrants’ urban settlement intentions but with a diminishing marginal effect. We also find that the marginal effect of economic incentives on rural migrants’ urban settlement decreases with the distance to their hometown. Furthermore, the variations of the impacts of economic incentives on rural migrants’ settlement intentions are investigated with respect to education level, employment status, and regional heterogeneity. Finally, we discuss policy implications resulting from our empirical analysis.

Although the literature on the financialization of housing pays most attention to mortgaged and securitized homeownership and the penetration of capital into subsidized rental housing, forms of financialization are varied. In China, housing commodification and privatization has underpinned a growth in homeownership. One of the outcomes of financialization of housing is the transformation of owner-occupied housing into a financial asset for households’ wealth. Despite a relatively low level of residential mortgage lending in China, both the absolute volume of mortgages and the proportion of gross domestic product they represent are now rising. Housing value appreciation has driven a significant increase in the financing of housing consumption through multiple channels. This article examines these channels and suggests that the financialization of housing in China is a critical part of the country’s overall development model. It is further argued that the root of housing financialization in China is not mortgage securitization but the creation of owner-occupied housing as a financialized asset to propel the wider financialization of the Chinese economy in the context of state-controlled financial environment.