Zan Yang

Tsinghua University | TH · Institute of Real Estate Studies

As suggested by the person-environment fit theory, how older people interact with and modify their housing is an important determinant for their health and well-being. For the first time, this study investigates the constraints of housing modifications innovatively. It finds that promoting housing modification depends not only on older people's aff...

This paper investigates the role of the prospect theory preferences in influencing the relationship between performance goals and subsequent performances. We find an inverted-U relationship between the goal of the central government and the performance of local governments in land supply based on China’s land supply data between 2005 and 2013. The...

Whether governments have informal preferences toward firms when allocating land resources and the effects of such preferences on regional development remain unclear, particularly in countries with weak formal institutions. This paper investigates the government’s informal preferences in land allocations in China. Substantial evidence is found that...

Based on the matched date of initial vacant land parcels and final completed housing projects in Beijing of China from 2003 to 2015, we investigate the correlations of land acquisition outcomes, developer risk attitude and land development timing. We find that real estate developers’ land acquisition gains or losses relative to a referential land a...

In recent years, with the ageing of the population, the life satisfaction of Chinese elderly people as well as their actual and preferred living arrangements have attracted extensive attention. The study using waves 2011 and 2013 of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) shows that the realization of preferred living arrangements h...

This paper investigates the relationship between political connections and corporate borrowing behaviour using the listed real estate development firms in China from 2001 to 2014. Evidence from China is of particular importance due to China being the world’s largest emerging and transition economy. We find that the benefit of political connections...

It is important to investigate the correlation between housing price and household consumption to gain an understanding of the behavior of the economy and effectively handle the consequences of economic development. In the last two decades, the accumulation of housing wealth by Chinese households has not been effectively transmitted to their final...

As the foundation of elderly care, living arrangements are closely connected with the physical and psychological well-being of the elderly and the social resources allocation. The objective of this study is to understand the constraints between the preferred and actual choices of elderly living arrangements in China. We first establish a standardiz...

In this paper, we provide a new explanation for the co-existence of huge housing demand and low dependence on mortgage loans in urban China, focusing on the effect of households’ informal borrowing from relatives and friends. Empirical analysis based on a national-level household survey suggests that because of the low financial cost of informal bo...

The emerging notion of emissions inequality expands the idea of sustainability by incorporating economic opportunity as well as social needs and rights into environmental costs and benefits. In China, increasing inequality among urban households in terms of both income and housing wealth establishes a pattern of social stratification. An understand...

Based on the household survey of “household energy consumption and living conditions in Beijing”, in this paper, we estimate the determinants of household carbon emissions and its relation to a community's building, neighborhood and location attributes. We find that a community with energy-saving building attributes and with greater amenities in ne...

Housing has become the most important asset held by a large proportion of China?s older citizens. Therefore, the role of housing wealth in the consumption decisions of the elderly is a central topic of research and gains insights into the saving, investment and consumption decisions made throughout household life to meet later pension needs. In thi...

The characteristics of young households positioned on the edges of homeownership in a rapidly growing economy are investigated. This empirical work is based on a unique survey conducted in 2011 in Shanghai, which enables us to determine how young renters assess their major financial obstacles to becoming homeowners. We distinguish whether young ren...

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate housing price risks by examining the price diffusion process in different regions of Sweden. We model regional housing volatility as stemming from two sources: regional-specific shocks that reflect fundamental changes and regional-dependent shocks that reflect shocks in related regions. We evaluate the relat...

This paper investigates real estate development firms' pricing behaviours in Beijing, China during the period 2006–2008. New apartment prices are set by real estate development firms at the presale stage with widely observed price rigidity. Home buyers are often price takers without much power of negotiation in the price setting process. We find th...

After three decades of housing reform, Chinese government embarked on a large-scale expansion of public housing provision over the last few years. This very ambitious plan of public housing construction aims at reducing the negative impacts from global economic slowdown since 2008; at the same time, tackling the huge inflation in and achieve the ha...

Since 2004, two auction mechanisms - listing auctions and tender auctions - have played a dominant role in land lease arrangements for real estate development in Beijing. Listing auctions in land markets are similar to general English auctions, where bidders offer the highest price to win. However, in tender auctions, winners are determined by the...

In this chapter, we will study housing affordability at the regional level. We start with a general overview of the regional disparity in housing affordability. We then investigate in depth the housing affordability in Beijing to capture the characteristics and distribution of affordability based on both macro and micro data. We also measure the ef...

The fundamental justification for government intervention in the housing market is based on the market characteristics, such as natural monopoly, externalities, imperfect information, and frictions. This chapter provides the theoretical basis to support the government policy in response to the affordability problem. In particular, the public housin...

This chapter reviews and discusses the concept of housing affordability and its measure in academic and political studies. Several commonly used methods will be examined to determine the proper approach for Chinese studies.

Housing finance systems can be categorized into two approaches: market-based institutions that are integrated into the broader financial system versus special circuit institutions that are self-funded and separated from the rest of the financial system (Blanc 2009).

This chapter aims to assess the housing affordability conditions for urban residents in China at a national level. We analyse how households’ ability to access and afford urban housing has varied before and after the 1998 reform. We also investigate how affordability varies across households with different incomes. In addition to applying commonly...

The housing market in Urban China has experienced many important changes since the Communists came to power in 1949. In general, we can divide China’s housing reform into three significant stages: the pre-reform process (between 1949 and 1978), the reform process (from 1978 to 1998) and the post-reform process (after 1998).

Housing affordability remains a complex and contested topic although it has long been a political language in housing policy (Maclennan and Williams 1990; Quigley and Raphael 2004). This could be attributed to the ambiguity of the concept and the way in which it is measured for the purpose of designing policies. Fundamentally, the issue relates to...

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of housing affordability under the economic reforms and social transformations in urban China. It also offers an overall review of the current government measures on the housing market and affordable housing policies in China. By introducing a dynamic affordability approach and residual income approach, t...

As China's political, economic and cultural center, Beijing is a strong magnet for both population and industry. Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, the city's population has reached 20.2 million as of 2011 (Statistical Bureau of Beijing 2012), and built-up urban areas have grown to 1,425.9 km2 in 2011 (NBSC 2012). In addition, there h...

China has a unique experience of public housing development. Before 1998, public ownership dominated the housing provision in urban China. Nonetheless, the employer-based welfare housing program was formally abolished in 1998, and the overwhelming majority of the public housing stock was quickly privatized. However, the Chinese government again com...

Acute housing poverty and low housing affordability among low-to-medium-income households have become challenges in the pursuit of a harmonious society in China. Promoting housing subsidies and stimulating investment on affordable housing have been at the center of China’s housing policy. This paper analyzes the correlation of affordable housing pr...

Few empirical studies focus on developing data and analyses on the factors that influence the decision making process of builders, developers and landlords. Interest subsidy, taxes, and competition are some of the factors that can influence the level of construction or production costs and ultimately the price of the housing units produced. Differe...

Significant fluctuations in house prices have received considerable attention in recent years. An understanding of the forces underlying the departure from fundamental values is important in explaining the mechanisms underlying housing market performance and predicting potential house price changes in the future. This study constitutes the first us...

Housing affordability has long been on the agenda of China's policy makers. Imperfections in the housing system and growing disparities in income and wealth have been central to the problem of affordable housing. Housing reforms in China led to the creation of a market-oriented housing system, but also increased economic and social stratification....

Over the past decade, China's major cities have experienced significant real estate price increase which has been fueled by the sustained growth of the economic fundamentals. It is well believed that deeper integration with the world market is one of the major reasons for such high speed macroeconomic growth. In this paper, we examined the linkage...

This study measures the heterogeneous effects of monetary policy on regional house prices in Sweden 1991–2002. We use a multivariate persistent shock metric to examine the impact of short-term interest rate on the property market. We also segregate the influence of interest rate shocks and influence of local shocks to capture their respective effec...

Facilitating home ownership and providing more affordable housing has received considerable attention in urban China. However, it remains a challenge to develop better measurements of affordability due to the income disparity and housing inequality in Beijing. In this study, a new measure of affordability is defined by residual income. Therefore, a...

The aim of this paper is to analyse security aspects on home ownership in a European perspective. The conventional view is that homeowners' security is achieved through equity formation in their homes. This opens up possibilities to withdraw equity in order to supplement a faulting social support system, to retire early or, in general, to increase...

The long run linkages between Swedish housing prices and property stock prices are investigated with the consideration that rental control system applied in Sweden could deviate asset prices from the suggested co‐integration. To confirm the degree of equilibrium, Error Correction Model with exogenous variables and the effect of the tax reform in 19...

We estimate quarterly dynamic housing demand and investment supply models for Sweden and UK for the sample period 1970-1998 using an Error Correction Method (ECM). This method requires as a preliminary step that we test for the order of integration and cointegration. The ECM models seem appropriate as the dynamics of both short-run (changes) and (l...

In this study, the recent persistent growth of regional house price pattern in Sweden is explained by the fundamental variables and the regional distributive perspective on household income and wealth are indicated to be important to understand the different level and development of regional housing market. We also discuss the long running relation...

We estimate quarterly dynamic housing demand and investment supply models for Sweden and the UK for the sample period 1970-1998, using an Error Correction Method (ECM). To facilitate comparisons of results between Sweden and the UK we model both countries identically with approximately almost the similar type of exogenous variables. The long run in...

We estimate quarterly dynamic housing demand and investment supply models for Sweden and the UK for the sample period 1970–1998, using an Error Correction Method (ECM). To facilitate comparisons of results between Sweden and the UK we model both countries identically with approximately almost the similar type of exogenous variables. The long–run in...

The implicit prices of housing characteristics concerning the physical structure, location, environment and the risk of construction quality in China are examined in this paper. The hedonic price model with uncertainty of construction quality is adopted. Data is collected from the Beijing residential market. The results indicate that consumers have...

An appraisal by an accredited appraiser is often necessary before a proposed development can receive a commitment for financing from a financial institution. Such pre-construction appraisals are often more difficult to complete than those where the subject property is already developed and accessible for inspection. In this article we are performin...