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China’s Middle Class:

Homeownership, Housing Consumption and Affordability

PLC WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 072

2011.01

Joyce Yanyun Man

Peking University – Lincoln Center

College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

Rongrong Ran

Peking University – Lincoln Center

Institute of Real Estate Studies, Tsinghua University of China

Leo KoGuan Building, Suite 508, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

Introduction

In the past decade, China’s housing policy and housing market have experienced dramatic change. Since 1998, housing reform focusing on the privatization of the state owned housing stock and market provision of housing have contributed significantly to the emergence and growth of middle class in Class. The definition of “middle class” is still controversial in literature, and there is no official government definition across various nations. However, many studies seek to define “middle class” both qualitatively and quantitatively. The “middle class” may be viewed as the broad group of people in contemporary society who fit socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. This socioeconomic class usually achieved tertiary education, hold professional qualifications, have secure job and homeownership, and have special social status and cultural identification. In addition, quantitative studies are also conducted to identify “middle class”. These studies are often based on the survey of household income and expenditure. Birdsall et al. define the middle class as those households between 75 and 125 percent of median per capita income. Based on the household survey from 13 developing countries, Banerjee and Duflo (2007) define the “middle class” as those whose daily consumption per capita is between $2 and $4 or between $6 and $10. Combined household income quintile data from Census Bureau with survey responses, Cashell identifies the “middle class” in US as those households with income in the middle quintile between $36,000 and $57,660 in a narrowest view or a more generous definition based upon the three middle quintiles of households with incomes between $19,178 and $91,765. Easterly defines the “middle class” as those lying between the 20th and 80th percentile on the consumption distribution. The economist magazine characterizes the middle class as those people who have about 1/3 of their income left to be disposed after paying for basic food and shelter.

The extensive literature provides us references to quantitatively identify the middle class in China. The term “middle class” is different from the term “middle income”. However, the household income distribution would contribute to the definition of the middle class. Using the data from large-sample Urban Household Survey in 2007 conducted by the National Bureau of Statistic of China (NBS), this paper seeks to define the middle class according to household income distribution and investigate how well the Chinese middle class has fared relatively as a result of Chinese housing reform. It will focus on the middle class group’s homeownership, housing consumption, and housing affordability issues. This analysis will have implications for a set of housing policies that will lead to a strong housing market and sustainable economic growth in China.

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