ABSTRACT
Housing and living conditions are important indicators of household poverty. Housing provision in Chinese cities and towns during the socialist planned economy period was dominated by the public sector. Along with job security, housing was the most important element of the welfare system. As a result of insufficient investment, housing conditions were generally very poor over the period from 1949-80. The overall average housing floor space per person was around 3 m2 at both the beginning and the end of the period. Since the early 1980s, as part of the urban economic reform and the transition to a market economy, important changes had been made to urban housing provision system. During the 1990s a substantial proportion of the public housing was sold to sitting tenants. Commercial property developers emerged as the main housing providers. Official data show that, at the end of 2000, over 77 per cent of urban residents
owned their homes. The average floor space per person had reached 20 m2. Many urban families now live in purpose-built flats.
