The Supply and Administration of Urban Housing in Mainland China: The Case of Shanghai

The history of Western industrialisation and the recent experience of developing countries both indicate that rapid industrial growth is usually accompanied by serious urban housing problems. The pressure to minimise infra-structure investment, which is expensive and only indirectly productive, is very great. The existence of this problem in China has long been recognised in general terms, but its exact dimensions have only recently been brought into question in articles by Kang Chao and William Hollister. Kang Chao has produced estimates for all urban areas which show that per capita living area approximately halved between 1949 and 1960. Hollister, in his work on capital formation, argues that a decline of this magnitude has not taken place. The difference between these two views arises first from Hollister's addition of 70 per cent, to the official housing construction figures for socialist enterprises for the years 1950 to 1955. This addition is the estimated extent of housing construction in the private sector. The second difference between the two estimates arises from the treatment of depreciation and repair work. Kang Chao makes no allowance for repair work and estimates depreciation to be 2 per cent, annually. Hollister on the other hand considers that 1 per cent depreciation is sufficient and estimates that repair work to this value has been done. Neither writer offers any systematic statistical evidence for his estimate of depreciation and repair. This is unfortunate, since these differences, over periods of ten years or more, lead to radically opposed appraisals of the housing situation.