ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses provision of affordable and social housing (ASH) in China after the housing reforms introduced commodity housing and phased out welfare housing. It first examines vehicles of ASH in China, which are designed to help households unable to buy or rent commodity housing, and the property rights issues involved. The chapter then reviews the evolution of Chinese housing policy up to 2006, detailing the 1998 housing policy with the focus on affordable housing, and policy shift in 2003 to concentrate on commodity housing. It discusses the recent fieldwork data in Guangzhou and Wuhan to provide case studies of China's ASH regime. Finally, it analyses the efficiency of China's ASH system and identifies its main problems. Macro control measures from 2006, in particular, the national ASH policy in 2007, have established a new ASH regime with Public Rental Housing (PRH), namely Low Rent Housing (LRH) and PRH, as the core of housing security system in urban China.
