Public, Private and Social
Housing in Post-crisis
East Asia
Richard Ronald
r.ronald@uva.nl
Urban Studies
University of Amsterdam
Different Housing Pathways
• European social housing problematised,
stigmatized and residualised since 1980s
• Transformation of housing associations
into self financing, market facing social
enterprises
• Public housing provision (of a more
social nature) revitalized in East Asia
since 1998 (especially after 2008)
• But why is policy socializing and how
manifesting differently in each country?
The Origins of Housing Policy
• Colonial legacies, the presence of China
and the desire to ‘catch up’
• Policy goals under ‘Developmental’ States
– shaped public housing policy: house workers,
extend urban infrastructure, realise potential
land values, sustain employment & rapid growth
• Housing policy in ‘Productivist’ regimes
– welfare state expansion either sacrificed or
focused on economic objectives (Holliday 2000;
Kwon, 2005)
• Deep Interventions: Public housing rather
than Social housing:
– commodified (Private) rather than decommodifying (Doling 1999, Groves et al 2007)
Examples: Singapore & Hong Kong
• Singapore (HDB)
–
–
–
–
Owner-occupied 29% to 92% (1970-2002)
Public sector 83%+ of all housing
CPF circuits of capital
Regulated second hand market
• Hong Kong (HKHA)
– Public rental build & slum clearance 1970s
– Keeping wages low and welfare state small
through public housing (Castells et al,1990)
– Shift to HOS policies in 1980s and 90s
– In 2009 29% Public rental, 16% public HOS
• Public Housing policy as main Pillar of
Welfare, Urban & Economic Policy
• Comparable approaches: Japan (1950s &
60s) Taiwan (70s-90s), China (90s-2000s)
Asian Financial Crisis!
• Watershed moment in East
Asian socioeconomic pathway
• End of rapid growth, high/full
employment era
• Undermined asset and real
estate values
• Tested security and adequacy
of welfare measures
The New Policy
Landscape
• New role of developmental state in
slower growth era (Kharas & Gill 2009)
• Ongoing processes of neoliberalization
• Socioeconomic polarization (kakusa
shakai)
• Democratization and intensified political
contestation
• Era of in-affordability & house price
volatility
• The state as competent housing provider
2008 and the ‘Global’ Crisis!
House price fluctuations
15 %
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
2005
2006
2007
China
Singapore
2008
Hong Kong
South Korea
2009
2010
Japan
Taiwan
2011
Taiwan – new social housing
• Long term promotion of home
ownership (67% to 82%,1976-2000)
• Less than 0.8% public rental housing
• Two major periods of house price
inflation in 1987-1990 and 2005+
12
• Snails without Shells - The Social
Housing Promotion Alliance
10
8
6
4
• Late-2010 New luxury tax on quick
sales of 2nd homes (Chen 2011)
2
0
-2
GDP growth rate (%)
Percent of unemployed to labor force (%)
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
-4
• 5 new social rental housing projects
South Korea’s Hybrid
social housing sector
•
Supply focus: 10.7 million housing units
constructed 1989-2007
•
1970s short term lets; Permanent public
housing program (1989) Fixed-tenure rental
(5-, 10-, 30- & 50-year) 1990 and 2000s
•
1998-2008 (Kim & Roh) Market reforms and
one million new social housing program shortage over but rising housing market inequalities
•
2008 Bogeumjari program: 1.5 million units 53% rental 47% subsidized purchase
•
Public rental housing <7.5% of housing 2000;
9.7% 2008, expected 12%+ by 2018
Housing policy plan (supply) 2009-2018
Category
Supplied Units
(expected)
Homeownership
700,000
Public Rental
Housing
Income
Residency Period
Permanent
200,000
10-year
Description
Mid to small-sized affordable housing
- Transfer (via sale) to homeownership after 10-year rental
- Home-share step-repayment
Deciles 3 to 5
Rental Housing Chonsei scheme
Total
100,000
10-20 year
National Rental
Housing
400,000
Deciles 2 to 4
30-year
Permanent Rental
Housing
100,000
Decile 1
No limit
1,500,000
- No monthly rental fees
- Inner-city neighborhoods
- Affordability: 60 to 70% of market price
- Sliding scale on household income
- Optional payment: Chonsei or monthly rental fees
- 3% of market rent
- Funding source from government direct subsidy
Social and Affordable
Housing in China
•
Post-1980 economic reform led by housing market
reform (urban H.O. grows 18%-82% 1980-2004)
•
Work Unit Housing abolished (1998) for
commercial housing; affordable housing;
government assisted rental
•
Uneven public measures & house price inflation =
housing market polarisation & economic instability
•
The ‘comfortable society’ making access to quality
dwelling a universal ‘basic housing right’
•
New housing policy implementation framework;
spending 1% GDP on affordable housing by 2020
New Directions
The end of an era and the beginning of the next
• Changes in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan?
• Demographic and family change; New political,
democratic and socioeconomic context
• Capacity and demand to expand public provision
• Building new social housing models or adapting
the market to serve emerging developmentalism
• Lessons for Europe? tapping housing wealth;
failed Asset based welfare (Doling and Ronald
2010, 2011, Ronald and Doling 2010, 2012)