The impact of housing privatisation in China

The existing literature on Chinese housing reform focuses on the historical account of reform events in the privatisation process. In this paper I will concentrate on the approaches and impacts of housing privatisation in China and examine the distorted and partial nature of the privatisation programme. Issues of housing price inflation, profiteering, distorted transactions, the lack of a well-developed mortgage-finance system, problems of affordability, and the continuing role of work units as mediators in the housing market are given prominent attention in this paper.