Introduction
Development of a national housing policy is a complicated process that is influenced by a wide range of factors. The demand for the living space, as well as the housing conditions, are strongly impacted by natural conditions, demography, the state of the national economy, social and political processes within the country, as well as to some extent those on the international scene.
On the other hand, availability and affordability of housing is an important factor of an individual’s wellbeing and, correspondingly, that of the whole nation. Therefore, the housing policy is one of the means for the power to regulate the quality of the social life and, in certain sense, reach the fundamental national goals, which are to wide extent wellbeing and prosperity of the nation.
This predetermines the ability of the power to effectively investigate the social tendencies and adjust its housing policy to the changing needs of the citizens. The issue of housing policies is especially burning nowadays considering the intense growth of population and the threat of the housing crisis.
The period of the 20th century in the Chinese history was saturated with significant events, determining social and political changes and reforms that contributed to the contemporary face of China.
The tendencies in the field of housing, as well as the national housing policies were also constantly evolving being influenced by the existing social conditions, as well as the government’s approach to conducting social policies; thus, studying the social history of housing in China is of particular interest. Besides, the high density of China’s population makes the issue of the housing policies particularly important.
This essay is devoted to the housing policy in Yantai, China. Studying the case of this city is of big importance: on the one hand, the extent of Yantai’s economical potential has turned the city into the strategically important object for the whole national economy; on the other hand, significant steps have been already taken to reform the housing policy in the city and improve the housing conditions.
The purpose of my study is to define what processes had the strongest impact on the housing tendencies in the city and how the housing policy was adjusted considering the occurring changes. The study is conducted from such perspectives as geographical and demographical conditions, economical situation, social and political processes.
In the course of the study, I will also refer to the housing history of the family of my mother’s relatives who have lived in Yantai for the last 9 decades in order to observe how the changes in the field of housing influenced the life of ordinary Yantai families.
Geographic Conditions and Historical Background
Geographical conditions significantly influence the economic specialization of a region creating propitious conditions for the development of a certain range of industries; on the other hand, they influence the demographical tendencies in the given territory providing favorable or, backwards, challenging conditions for living.
Yantai is located on the Shandong Peninsula; it stands on the southern coast of the Bohai Sea and the eastern coast of the Laizhou Bay. The territory of Yantai region consists of plains (50 per cent), mountains (37 per cent), hills (39 per cent) and basins (3 per cent); it has the extensive coastal line. The climate of Yantai is mild and comfortable for people’s living.
Therefore, Yantai’s geographical conditions were initially favorable for agriculture and fishing (later, close location to the seashore contributed to turning the territory into a powerful industrial zone).
The abovementioned components historically made the territory an attractive place for the settlement and caused high population density (Yue-man & Xuwei, 1992, pp.69-72) but, on the other hand, contributed to the progress of the housing deficit.
During the first half of the 20th century, Yantai’s housing stock had been dramatically exhausted due to a range of events, such as the endless civil war and the Japanese invasion (Xing, 2008, p. 3). The house of my relatives was not affected by the invaders; however, for many Yantai families, it took years or even decades to recover their living conditions.
The majority of Yantai people, including my relatives, lived in hutongs, narrow streets with small houses located along them. A house could be of about 30 square metres, with a door opening onto the street (Kirchgatter, 2003, p.145).
In the Chinese cities, including Yantai, the average living space per head was about 4-4.6 square metres; several generations lived together in one house experiencing routine difficulties (Xing, p.4).
After 1949 marked by Mao Tse-tung’s coming to power, many hutongs disappeared being replaced by streets and boulevards with more modernized apartments.
The government of the founded People’s Republic of China took several steps to manage the housing deficit:
- confiscation of the houses belonging to “war criminals, traitors and anti-revolutionaries” and of those Japanese-occupied;
- large-scale housing repairs;
- construction of 10 million square metres of the new housing stock (ibid.).
The housing stock got obtained in the result of these measures was provided to the representatives of the working class while he living conditions of fishermen and agrarians were changing quite slowly.
However, housing did not become the priority for the new government due to the focus on the Chinese nation’s industrialization that became the main object for the investment (Xing, p.3).
As a result, during the “Great Leap Forward” period the situation aggravated, and the following gap occurred: while the volume of housing stock itself did not grow, the population density demonstrated drastic increase due to the industrialization; therefore, people’s living conditions worsened. My relatives, the family of 7 with the grown-ups working at the local factory, had to live in a tiny 2-room apartment.
However, as one of them recollects, the Chinese people were not indignant at the situation: being impressed by the changes brought by the industrialization, they felt that the nation is going from the worse to the better, and had the strong sense of unity.
Economic Reform and Housing in Yantai
In 1978, China went under a large-scale economic reform that brought changes to all aspects of its social life. The country became the example of the most intense urbanisation processes in the history of the mankind.
Intense development of industry resulted in rapid growth of urban population and improvement of people’s living standard: according to Ya Ping, between 1978 and 1995, the disposable income per capita went at least three times bigger in many cities including Yantai (2005, p.2); thus, even in India with its average urban living space of 8 square metres per capita the situation was better.
The problem of “homelessness” aggravated as well; the following categories were included into this definition:
- “homeless households”;
- “overcrowded households” (less than 4 square metres per person);
- “inconvenient households”;
- “households living in physically dangerous housing conditions”.
On the whole territory of China, the number of “homeless” households increased from 131 million in 1978 to 193 million in 1980 (Xing, p.9). However, the real homelessness is quite difficult to estimate due to intense immigration: people coming unofficially often became “homeless” (ibid.). Yantai welcomed a big number of immigrants and thus also faced the abovementioned situation.
Another housing problem that Yantai faced by 1980s was low quality of the housing stock. Many houses constructed in 1950s-1970s were substandard and did not meet people’s contemporary requirements: sole use of kitchens and toilets, water and gas facilities were luxury for many families.
In 1980, the family of my relatives still did not have an opportunity to use gas at home. Disrepair of the majority of dwellings caused families’ discomfort and created threats for their health and even lives.
In (Xing, p.7), an international comparison of housing conditions is provided: by 1992, while a living space per capita was 41 in Toronto, 50 in Melbourne, 32 in Paris (in square metres), the urban areas of China were characterized with the number of 6.9.
However, it is necessary to mention strong inequality in the wealth of the citizens and, correspondingly, in the living conditions: while many Yantai citizens had to survive in their unrepaired tiny dwellings, a certain percent of people could afford living conditions similar to those in the capitals of developing countries or even middle-sized cities of developed countries.
Housing Reform in China and Housing Conditions in Yantai
From 1980s, housing in China was under reform predetermined by the economic reform. Among all biggest Chinese cities, Yantai became one of the “pioneers” in terms of receiving foreign and local investments which helped it turn from a fishing village into a highly urbanised territory (Kirchgatter, 2003, p. 145); that is why the changes in the housing policies were especially important for it.
One of the most significant changes in the field of housing was privatisation. It was conducted in three main stages (Gruis, 2009, p.132). The first step towards private housing ownership was the pilot sale period (1979-1987). The government chose four cities where the first pilot sales of dwellings were fulfilled.
During this period, houses were sold at cost price; gradually, the cost of dwellings was increased and reached the standard level (ibid.). Yantai also became the territory for experimental implementation of privatization: since 1986, purchase of public houses was promoted by means of subsidies offered to the citizens (ibid.).
The second stage of privatization was the mass sale of houses at low price. The new houses were sold at a standard price, and the old dwellings were offered to the citizens at a low price. Public housing stock began to diminish dramatically, and the mass privatization stopped giving the floor to the third stage of the privatization reform (from 1994), which was the differentiated sale (ibid.).
The Housing Provident Fund scheme was introduced; it included the rent reform. At this stage, the conditions of housing purchase were developed considering three income groups: high, middle, and low income. According to Liu, about 80 per cent of the public housing stock had been sold by 2002 (cited in Gruis, p.133).
Due to inequality of incomes and standard of living, many families were not able to purchase houses for a long time; my relatives bought a dwelling in 1997.
The changes that took place in housing brought new challenges and tasks for the government and the society. First of all, it was necessary to manage the privatised houses, which required developing a new policy in this field. Only in 1997 this problem was solved by issuing the “Circular on Strengthening Repair, Maintenance and Management Work after Sale of Public Housing” (ibid.).
However, the Chinese property management began to develop very quickly, and by 2000, there were about 20,000 property management companies in the country (p.134). Property management in Yantai was also developing very intensively due to the growing demand for the houses. The second issue was the condition of the public housing stock for sale: many houses required repair.
One more important peculiarity of the reform-period housing in China was absence of adequate housing market as an institution: during 1950s-70s, it had disappeared completely. The market began to form especially rapidly since 2000.
Another important aspect of the China housing reform was development of self-building housing. This approach was re-discovered in 1978 and encouraged by the government since 1980 (Xing & United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2008, p.31). Yantai also participated in this process. There were three types of self-building: 1) full self-build; 2) subsidized self-build; 3) co-operative self-build (ibid.).
Housing programme in Yantai
Yantai became the experimental plot for the housing reform since 1980s; in 2000s, the process of adjustment of the housing policy continued. The efforts of the government have resulted in the following housing policy upgrading projects:
- “Urban upgrading, focusing on improved physical environments in neighbourhoods”;
- “Upgrading of urban infrastructure facilities and services”;
- “Neighbourhood-wide redevelopment”;
- “Multi-sector urban upgrading” (Xing, p.1).
The improvement of physical environment began with ban of illegal structures. Until the beginning of 2000s, many Yantai citizens extended their living space by means of constructing additional illegal constructions (Xing, p.30). These extensions affected the appearance of the neighbourhoods and made the space overloaded.
The authorities decided to pull the illegal constructions and offered the citizens who had them to use the low-rent housing. The family of my relatives did not use this opportunity, though they had to pull the construction they had for 18 years. The government’s decision resulted in increase of the total open space in the city.
The further improvement of the physical space included construction of playgrounds, repair of roads and creation of paths for pedestrians only, renovation of houses’ external walls, re-roofing (p.31). During a few years, the district where my relatives lived turned into a beautiful place.
The second stage, upgrading of infrastructure and facilities, resulted in provision of new electricity, gas and communication facilities, as well as the implementation of the new waste management approach – these measures made the city comfortable for living (p. 32). The further actions were directed towards redevelopment of inconvenient and unsafe neighbourhoods, which was the third element of the Yantai programme (p.33).
The most eloquent example was redevelopment of the Tongshen neighbourhood where the younger generation of my relatives lived by that moment. The buildings were too old and unsafe, and the complete redevelopment of the neighborhood was the best option. Gradually, Tongshen became a progressive neighbourhood consisting of modern houses with flats from 1-bedroom to 4-bedroom.
The fourth stage of Yantai housing programme seems to be the most large-scale: multi-sector urban upgrading included intensive redevelopment, renovation of historical buildings, creation of open-space clusters (pp. 41-42).
At the moment, housing becomes affordable for more and more Yantai citizens, which increases demand for dwellings. In many cases, generations of one family do not have to live together in one flat and prefer to live apart. There are the Yantai Economic and Technological Development Area and Yantai Export Processing Zone that make the city grow and attract specialists from other regions.
Besides, due to the comfortable climate and clean seashore, the city became attractive for tourists, which creates additional demand for hotels and other housing for the people coming. Construction of new houses goes on, and the old houses are repaired.
Conclusion
History of housing in Yantai has been influenced by a wide range of factors, from the geographical position of the city to the social and political processes in that took place in China. Considering the huge rate of growth of population density in China, the problem of housing deficit traditionally existed in its most densely inhabited areas, and Yantai was not an exception from this rule.
For a long period, housing was not the priority for the government, which aggravated the situation and made many people live in the conditions that were under the standard.
However, understanding that the wellbeing of an individual is the basis for the prosperity of the whole state, the authorities drew attention to the issue of housing and implemented the necessary reforms. Today, Yantai is a beautiful, comfortable city with its housing stock constantly growing.
References
Gruis, V. Management of privatized housing: international policies & practice. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Kirchgatter, D., 2003. Experiencing China. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford.
Ya Ping, W., 2005. Urban poverty, housing and social change in China. USA; Canada: Routledge.
Yue-man, Y. & Xuwei, H., 1992. China’s coastal cities: catalysts for modernization. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Xing, Q. Zh., 2008. Housing and urban upgrading in Yantai, China. Kenya : United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
Xing, Q. Zh. & United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2008. Housing for all: the challenges of affordability, accessibility and sustainability. Nairobi: United Nations Human Settlements Programme.