China's emerging housing market, as a critical element of ongoing economic reforms,
has drawn increasing attention. The complete abandonment of the socialist housing
allocation system in the late 1990s has led to profound changes in housing
distribution and consumption in urban China. This article, through analysis of
Chinese Census 2000 data and other comparable datasets, studies housing trends in
China and in its four autonomous municipalities in the late 1990s. It is found that
urban housing has improved by almost all accounts, while housing gaps were
rapidly widening. Meanwhile, the mechanisms of housing distribution were
shifting. Occupational status and educational level became much more decisive
factors. Regional disparities are also evident, due in part to differences in the reform
measures undertaken. The drastic changes in the housing sector manifest the
phenomenal socioeconomic changes due to twenty years' economic reforms.
Reform is successful in increasing distributional inequality as a way to introduce
market-based incentives and improve productivity. However, those who were in
power have maintained and extended their advantages in the new system.
Therefore, while the market is in the making, demographic and institutional factors
instead of economic factors are more relevant in housing distribution and residential
behavior.