The Changing Landscape of Low-income Housing in post-2008 Urban China

Not only offering shelters but also the access to various life chances, affordable housing is considered an essential social infrastructure enabling physical and social mobility for low-income population. This talk provides an overview of the changing landscape of low-income housing in urban China and its implications for the mobility and wellbeing of low-income urban population in the post-global financial crisis era. Accounting for both formal and informal housing development, this study seeks to offer a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted low-income housing development through unpacking its multifarious processes and implications in the recent two decades. In parallel to a political economy analysis of two major stages of affordable housing development in post-2008 urban China, the development of informal housing in major Chinese cities is also scrutinised. Examining diverse types of low-income housing development, including shanty-town redevelopment, public and private rental housing, long-term rental apartments, “urban villages”, “small property right housing”, this research aims to explore more comprehensive and inclusive approaches to low-income housing development and diverse pathways to enhancing low-income populations’ social mobility and wellbeing.