Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2001): Social Housing - Overseas

HOUSING REFORM AND ITS IMPACT ON THE URBAN POOR IN CHINA

Ya, P. W.

Housing Studies, vol. 15, 2000, p. 845-864

During the late 1980s and 1990s much publicly owned housing was sold off to existing tenants. Large numbers of new houses were built by commercial property developers for the emerging urban housing market. Paper examines the nature of the emerging urban poor and their access to housing and the impact of recent housing reforms on disadvantaged groups. Paper identifies two major groups of urban poor in Chinese cities: official residents and migrants from the rural areas. Concludes that while the housing problems of the "official" poor have been recognised, there is no formal policy in relation to housing provision for the "unofficial" poor.