Housing Affordability and Permanent Migration Intention of Rural-Urban Migrants

Leading the rural-urban migration is the key to solving the problem of imbalanced urban structure in China; in which the migration will of the rural-urban migrants should not be ignored, especially the permanent will of migration. This paper uses the ratio of rent to income as an indicator of the housing affordability of rural-urban migrants, empirically analyzes the impact of housing affordability on the permanent migration will of rural-urban migrants. It was found that the impact of rent-income ratio is significant and there exists a turning point. Before the point, the ratio is positively correlated with the permanent migration will of rural migrants; whereas after the turning point, they are negatively correlated. Before that point, relative to income of rural migrants, the rents are still bearable and the ratio does not have a negative effect on the migration will, which explains why a large number of rural-urban migrants tend to choose the large-sized cities with higher housing prices, rather than the small and medium-sized cities or small towns with lower housing prices.