Bridging formal and informal dynamics of low-income housing development in urban China

In China, rocketing housing price in large cities and limited provision of affordable housing have pushed many into despair. Adding to this problem is the urban-rural dichotomy that institutionalizes and perpetualizes the... [ view full abstract ]

In China, rocketing housing price in large cities and limited provision of affordable housing have pushed many into despair. Adding to this problem is the urban-rural dichotomy that institutionalizes and perpetualizes the inferiority of rural migrants in the city, who have amounted to more than 270 million in recent years. Central to the housing affordability problem haunting many Chinese cities is the predominant land revenue-driven urban growth model. Against this backdrop, different strategies have been developed both from top-down and bottom-up. On the one hand, the central government has announced an unprecedentedly large-scale affordable housing development plan to construct 36 million affordable housing units during the 12th five year plan (2011-2015). On the other, informal housing strategies are thriving on the collective land owned by villagers whose farmland has been encroached by the waves of urban expansion. Seemingly, these two mechanisms of affordable housing development led by the state and the village collective respectively are targeting at different social groups and evolve along parallel paths independent of each other. However, both mechanisms closely hinge upon the dual land system and land provision mechanism and can complement and learn from each other. Based on case studies in Chongqing and Shenzhen, I try to explore the connections between formal and informal low-income housing from two perspectives, the ways in which these two processes are connected with local land development and financing strategies; and (ii) the extents to which formal and informal low-income housing supplement and affect one another.