Public support for inclusionary housing in urban China

Abstract

In recent years, China has been experimenting with inclusionary housing to develop affordable housing and promote mixed living in cities. There is thus an urgent need to understand residents’ preferences and public support for inclusionary housing, which is important not only for the design and implementation of inclusionary housing but also for political legitimacy and social stability. This study developed a conceptual framework to understand public support for inclusionary housing. Hypotheses derived from the self-interest, ideology and institutional setup theses were then developed. A two-level mixed effect logit model was also conducted using data from a 2013 survey in Jiangsu Province. Results indicated that most people preferred inclusionary housing to concentrated low-income housing; all three theses were supported to some degree. People of lower socioeconomic status, recipients of housing subsidies, and those living in cities with significant low-income housing coverage rates were more likely to support inclusionary housing. On the other hand, migrants were less likely to support this measure. The effectiveness of inclusionary housing was also discussed and policy recommendations were provided.

Keywords:

• Inclusionary housing
• low-income housing
• stated preference
• public support
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 CRH refers to housing subsidies in the rental sector as comprising ‘low-income households with housing difficulty’. These can be provided in the form of either actual housing by the government, work units with government-controlled rents, or monetary subsidies for low-income households to rent private housing in the market. ECH is ownership-oriented housing provided by developers on free land allocated by local municipal governments. It is sold to qualified households at government controlled prices. ECH offers only partial property rights, which constrains homeowners from freely release it to the market for profits (State Council, 2007). It was not defined as low-income housing until 2007. PRH is rental housing provided by either public or private agencies with government-controlled rents. It mainly targets lower-middle income households with housing difficulties, new employees, and qualified migrants with stable jobs and city residence (MOHURD, 2010).

2 Districts are generally located in the central zones of provincial cities. County-level cities are in the periphery of provincial cities.

3 This is an indicator evaluated and provided by the Jiangsu Bureau of Housing and Urban and Rural Development to reflect the comprehensiveness of low-income housing policies developed by municipal governments. This is done according to the corresponding requirements from the provincial government, such as low-income housing types and household coverage (JDRC, 2013)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41671171 and 41101160]; the Ministry of Education of China [grant number 16YJC630122]; and China Scholarship Council [grant number 201208320125].