ABSTRACT
China has experienced an unprecedented housing boom in recent decades. China built about twice the total number of houses currently in the UK in the decade of 2000-2010 alone (EIU 2011). Housing consumption has improved dramatically, with per capita floor space increased from 4 m2 to 29 m2, and the rate of homeownership increased from 20 percent to 70 percent in Chinese cities (Yi and Huang 2014). Moreover, more than 15 percent of urban households owned multiple homes in 2007 (Huang and Yi 2011). China is becoming a nation of homeowners (85 percent nationwide in 2010), and housing is becoming an increasingly important part of household wealth and an indicator for social class (Zhang 2012). Meanwhile, housing is becoming increasingly expensive and unaffordable. The average housing price-to-income ratio in all cities was 5.56 in 2007 (Man et al. 2011) and 8.76 in 2010 (CASS 2011), which is above the normal range of 3-5 and considered “severely unaffordable” according to the criteria used by UN-HABITAT. In big cities like Shanghai, housing is among the most expensive in the world. The average price of housing in Shanghai was ¥14,400/m2 ($2,322/m2) in 2010, and the price-to-income ratio was 15.45 (E-house China R&D Institute 2014). Housing affordability in Shanghai is an issue not only for low-income households, but also for households across the spectrum (Chen et al. 2010). While the main function of housing is to provide shelter, it is increasingly becoming a tool for wealth accumulation in China, as China privatizes its housing system and the emerging housing market is highly speculative. As a result, the economic status of homeowners has been significantly elevated (Li 2010), such that homeowners often consider themselves a different social stratum from renters. In other words, housing is becoming a symbol for social status, and homeownership is becoming a symbol for the good life of the middle-class (Zhang 2012). Yet, there have been few studies of the role of housing in social stratification. Social stratification can be measured with subjective assessments and objective indicators. Most studies on social stratification assume that social class or stratum is formed by certain objective indicators, such as occupation, education, property and income, and power. Even “social prestige” (seemingly a
subjective evaluation criterion) is also based on social economic factors that inherently include power, education, income, and other elements (Blau and Duncan 1967; Featherman et al. 1975). Subjective assessment refers to a respondent identifying the stratum he or she belongs to according to real-life conditions. Subjective stratum identification is important because people’s self-evaluation can directly reflect their satisfaction with their position in the society and their standard of living. Of course, subjective assessments and objective indicators are closely related. Existing research mostly focuses on objective indicators of social strata. In this chapter, we focus on subjective assessment of social stratum and examine the role of housing consumption in stratum identification. Here, we study two main questions: (1) What are the key factors affecting housing consumption in urban China? (2) How does housing consumption, especially homeownership, affect people’s social stratum identification? After a review of the related literature, we will conduct an empirical analysis using Shanghai as a case study, followed by conclusions and discussion.
