Changes in the Structure of Public Housing Provision in Urban China

Housing provision in a socialist country is generally characterised by the dominance of public housing. However, provision of public housing is a complicated process, which involves various social agencies. In the case of China, the simple notion of 'state provision' covers huge differences between municipally-managed and work-unit housing. The lack of understanding in the structure of public housing provision has led to unsuccessful efforts in promoting the 'commercialisation' of housing in recent years. This paper, adopting a perspective of structure of housing provision (SHP), attempts to examine the changes in public-sector housing in China and to reveal the critical role of state work-units in the SHP. Housing reform has led to some significant changes in the SHP. The transformation, however, is far from a process of commercialisation or privatisation of public housing stock. On the production side, work-units do withdraw themselves from direct involvement in housing construction. However, on the consumption side, the low incomes of state workers, due to the political economy, have forced the work-unit system to remain as an indispensable part of the SHP. The increasing role played by state work-units shows the contradiction embedded in a socialist market economy—i.e. the reproduction of labour through market mechanisms and the persistence of public ownership of production. The changes certainly have profound implications for the nation's urban development and urban spatial structure.