Residential change and housing inequality in urban China in the early twenty-first century: Analysis of Guangzhou survey data

The turn of the century witnessed fundamental changes in the way urban housing in China was produced and allocated. In order to minimize the impacts of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–98, the Chinese government under Premier Zhu Rongji identified real estate development and auto production as two economic growth engines or driving forces because of their extensive multiplier effects (Li, 2005). Concomitantly, Zhu pronounced to end the welfare allocation of housing, under which state work units had acted as the main provider of urban housing since the founding of the People’s Republic (Li and Yi, 2007a). From then onwards, the great majority of urban households have had to rely on the market for housing access (Li and Yi, 2007a).