ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the emergence and persistence of Homeowner associations’ (HOAs) in urban areas. It shows that HOAs emerged as a response to the problems arising from condominium governance and the Chinese state engaged multiple goals of governing HOAs, such as regularizing the property management market, promoting homeowners’ civic spirits, and ensuring social stability at the grass-roots level. The chapter articulates the distinctive characteristics of HOA governance. It demonstrates that China’s HOAs do not exhibit the merits of their Western counterparts, which detrimentally affects their performance in condominium governance. The chapter investigates residents’ perceptions of HOAs in the typical Chinese city of Nanning by analysing a small-scale online survey. It focuses on what institutional changes could enhance HOAs’ role in condominium governance. In the common-law system, an HOA is a business corporation established by a statute as well as by the specific covenants for a condominium scheme.
