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Post-transitional housing systems: China and Russia compared

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Abstract

Existing housing regime theories are established in the Western marketised contexts and have limited applicability in post-transitional housing systems. This paper compares Chinese and Russian housing systems since transition to obtain more understanding of post-transitional housing systems and the housing challenges facing these economies currently. A conceptual framework that investigates housing system operation through the interaction between housing market operations and housing policies in three spheres—production, exchange and consumption—is used in the analysis. The comparison shows that different strategies applied in transition, particularly regarding the government’s role, have contributed to different housing system outcomes in these two countries. It further supports existing research which shows that post-transitional housing systems are still transforming and are characterised by an essential deviation from Western marketised systems. Thus, housing systems in transitional economies are better understood from a more hybrid and dynamic view, rather than a single and static perspective.

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Notes

  1. The term ‘transition’ used in the paper only meant to describe the initial direction towards a marketised system rather than the final destination. The process itself, as the research will show, is indeed not one-directional and pursued through different policy strategies, and may better be described as ‘transformation’ (Stephens et al. 2015).

  2. In Table 2, many of the data appear high. This is a result of hyperinflation at that time.

  3. Comparing the 1992, 1995 and 2000 data in Table 4 with that in Table 3, it can be seen that housing constructed by population at own expense and with credits refers to housing constructed by private building owners, which actually means individual households.

  4. In Russia, many employers pay salary in cash in order to avoid tax, referred to as grey income. If a consumer wants to apply for a mortgage loan based on his/her grey income, a letter from the employer is needed to confirm the borrower’s salary.

  5. The national data are not available, so Beijing is used as an example. In Beijing in 2010, private home ownership represents more than 80 % of housing tenures (Beijing Bureau of Statistics 2011).

  6. As the Russian population has declined following the housing reform, it is considered that the significant housing shortage that has emerged can be largely attributable to the inability to supply new housing to keep pace with the rate at which public housing became inhabitable because of serious undermaintenance.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (15YJCZH004). This project has also received financial support from the National 985 Project of Nontraditional Security at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, P. R. China. The authors would like to thank Professor Bill Randolph and Associate Professor Vivienne Milligan (the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) for their comments on arguments in this paper. The authors are also grateful to Professor Mark Stephens (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK) for offering his insights about housing systems in European transitional economies. The authors also express their appreciation to editors and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on improving this paper. The opinions expressed in the paper, however, are those of the authors.

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  1. College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjie Cai & Xinhai Lu

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  1. Wenjie Cai
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Cai, W., Lu, X. Post-transitional housing systems: China and Russia compared. J Hous and the Built Environ 32, 191–209 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-016-9507-4

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