ABSTRACT
Urban housing system had generated many problems, such as shortage and overcrowding, inequality of distribution, corruption, inefficient management and mal-maintenance. This chapter reviews major latter changes and focuses on the outcomes of urban housing reform during the 1990s. It discusses the major problems of the housing system and policy development. In 1981, over half of urban housing was managed directly by work units and 28 per cent by housing authorities run by the municipal governments. By the 1970s, a public sector-dominated welfare housing provision system had been established in urban areas. This system resembled many features of the East European housing model. From the early 1980s, the Chinese government put forward new policies designed to reform the urban housing system. A series of reform experiments were carried out in various locations from 1979 to 1988. Despite these successes, housing reform has not solved all the problems of the old system.
