BY Chang Jian & Guo Wei 

Professor Chang Jian at the Forum

  The right to adequate housing is a basic human right. During the transition to the market economy in China, it is a new issue for the Chinese Government to ensure everyone, particularly the families with the low-to-medium incomes, has the access to adequate housing while increasing the supply of houses. Housing is a basic right of people, and everyone in China will enjoy the adequate housing, said Wang Guangtao, the Chinese Minister of Construction. The Chinese Government has gradually established and improved the multilevel housing security system according to the actual national situations, and made every effort to ensure that all the citizens have an access to adequate housing.

   I. Access to Adequate Housing Is a Basic Human Right  

   Housing is one of the most fundamental physiological needs of people, and is related to whether people can live a life with dignity. Mayra GOmez and Bret Thiele, who work at the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions, point out that the access to adequate housing directly influences other human rights in the article Housing Rights are Human Rights. "Without adequate housing, people will be difficult to secure and maintain their jobs, subject to threats to their health and restrictions on their education and more vulnerable to violent assault and disclosure of privacy, and the social relations will often become tense. The lack of affordable housings will leave people, particularly the poor population, into a dilemma, housing or food, housing or medical care, housing or clothing and so on."
    The right to adequate housing is defined as a fundamental human rights by various international human rights documents, and is derived from the right to an adequate standard of living. The first sentence of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights expressly announces that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. The first sentence of Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights explicitly stipulates that the States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and that the States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent. Additionally, the United Nations passed the Declaration on Social Progress and Development in 1969, and the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements in 1976, both recognizing the right of everyone to adequate housing. 

    Milloon Kothari, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, defines the right to adequate housing as the right of every man, woman, youth and child to obtain and continuously own the secured housing and community enabling them to live with peace and dignity."No. 4 general comment on the right to adequate housing passed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1991 construed the first sentence of Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in detail, and generalizes the contents of the right to adequate housing in seven aspects:   

  1. the legal security of tenure;  

  2. the availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; 

  3. the affordability;  

  4. the habitability;   

  5. the accessibility to the weak group;

  6. the convenient location; and   

  7. the cultural adequacy. 

   Access to many human rights depends on the realization of the right to adequate housing, according to the analysis of some human rights institutions of the United Nations. These rights include the right to personal dignity, the right to non-discrimination, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to choose residence freely, the right to freedom of speech and association, the right to personal safety, the right to no intrusion of personal privacy, family, residence and communication and so on. At the same time, the right to adequate, safe and secured housing is of significant influence on other rights of people, including the right to environmental hygiene and the right to a high standard of mental and physical health. The World Health Organization (WHO) announces that housing is the most important environmental factor associated with the conditions of disease, the high death rate and the high incidence rate.

   II. New Problems for Housing of Citizens in China  

   The housing issue is a global problem. About 100 million people on this planet are homeless, and roughly 1 billion people have very poor housing conditions, according to the information from the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions. Even in America, one of the richest nations in the world, there are still 3.5 million homeless people, including 1.35 million children. Besides, the housing conditions of millions of people there are very terrible.

   The shortage of housing used to be a serious problem that had worried the Chinese citizens, particularly urban citizens. In 1979 when the reform and opening up just started, the housing area per capita in China was only 3.6 square meters, according to relevant statistical data. About 47.5% of urban residents were not accessible to adequate housing or houseless. In the 1980s, the steersman of the Chinese reform Deng Xiaoping proposed the reform of the urban housing system and the accelerated construction of urban houses. Afterwards, the establishment of the housing investing mechanism whereby the State, units and individuals reasonably share the housing cost stimulated the enthusiasms of units and individuals. Ever since the late 1990s, the housing conditions of Chinese residents have witnessed the substantial improvement, a result of the sale of public-owned houses to individuals, the start of the monetization reform of housing distribution as well as the establishment and continuous improvement of the housing provident fund system. The building area of the housing per capita had reached 27 square meters in terms of the registered population by 2007, marking that China has said goodbye to the time of insufficient housing. 

   However, the housing price has kept rising together with the prosperity of the real estate market. Many families with the medium-to-low incomes are unable to bear the high housing price, which has become a new social problem. About 10 million low-income families still suffered the inadequate housing conditions with the housing area per capita below 10 square meters, revealed Shen Jianzhong, head of the housing and real estate industry of the Ministry of Construction, in an interview with the media on September 18, 2007. How to guarantee the adequate housing of the families with medium-to-low incomes has become a challenge to the Chinese Government.

   The Chinese Government attaches much importance to the security of the right to housing of citizens. "Housing is a basic right of people, and also a basic social security. It is impossible to solve the social fairness in the housing sector only through the market mechanism, according to the practice of the reform and exploration over the past decades,"said Wang Guangtao, the Chinese Minister of Construction, at the National Construction Working Conference in January 2007. Based on the consideration of ensuring the housing right of citizens, the Chinese Government has been advancing the establishment of the housing security system at a faster pace to explore the housing security mode that is suitable for the actual situations in China.

    Wang Guangtao reiterated that housing is a basic human right and every citizen in China would have the access to adequate housing at the International Forum on Urban Development held on May 19, 2007. He pointed out that the real estate industry should focus on the development of common commodity houses for the general public, take full consideration of the residential living cost of the families with the medium-to-low incomes, and research the housing for the special staff that move from one region to another and rural workers that work in cities. The housing development should shift from the excessive pursuit of economic growth and the increase in the average housing area to the solution of social fairness and the livelihood of people. The real estate industry should focus on the development of the common commodity houses oriented at the general public. The role of the market mechanism must be adhered to while real estate industry provides the houses with a small area but intact functions, low cost but high quality, and low land use but beautiful environment by means of elaborate design and industrialized production.

  III. Evolution of Multilevel House Security Mode in China 

  To guarantee the housing right of the public, many nations have built the housing security system. The housing security can approximately be divided into three levels. The first level is the relief-nature security, which means that the government offers relief to the extremely impoverished group at the bottom of the society, and undertakes the part of the housing demand that fails to meet the minimum housing security standard in the society. The public house with low rent is a typical example of such security. The second level is the aid-nature security, which means that the government takes appropriate steps to enable the group with the relatively low purchasing power for housing and urgent need for housing improvement to obtain the housing in a timely manner. Interest subsidy, rent subsidy, rebate of personal income tax, mortgage guarantee, economically affordable houses, and affordable houses all fall into this category. The third level is the mutual security, which means that the government takes appropriate steps, including forcing employers to provide subsidies for employees, reducing the personal income taxes and specifying the policy-related preferential interest, to improve the purchasing power of the middle class of the society and accordingly satisfy their reasonable housing demand in a timely manner. The housing provident fund and the housing savings bank (housing savings account) are typical of this form of security. China has learned the experience from various countries and at the same time kept exploring based on the actual situations of the nation in the process of the reform of the housing security system. The housing security system has evolved over a number of stages.

   During the long-term planned economy in China, the urban housing security system principally featured with the plan by the government and the allocation by the unit. Accompanying the transition from the planned economy to the market economy, the housing security system in China has also changed, and the allocation of houses as benefit came to an end. In 1994, the State Council first visualized the establishment of the multilevel housing provision system in the Decisions of the State Council on Deepening the Reform of the Urban Housing System, and set the target of the reform as to build a new housing system combining the market and security. On the one hand, the system for the provision of the economically affordable houses oriented to the families with the medium-to-low incomes shall be established, and such houses are of the social security nature. On the other hand, the system for the provision of commodity houses shall be built to satisfy the housing demand of high-income families. At the same time, the housing provident fund system shall be established, the housing finance and insurance shall be developed, and the housing credit system for both policy and commercial purposes shall be constituted.

    In 1998, the State Council further put forward the three-level housing provision mode in the Circular of the State Council on Further Deepening the Urban Housing System Reform and Accelerating Housing Construction. The three levels are as follows: The families with the lowest incomes rent the low-rent housing provided by the government or the unit, the families with the medium-to-low incomes buy the economically affordable housing, and other families with high incomes buy and rent commodity houses at the market price. The economically affordable housing plays a leading role in the housing provision under the three-level housing provision system.

   In May 2006, the Ministry of Construction reviewed and researched China's housing security system together with relevant policy research institutes to overcome the shortcomings of the economically affordable housing system, and reached a final conclusion that China's housing security system needed an adjustment. The concrete operating method is to further segment the groups with the medium-to-low incomes, allow the coexistence of the low-rent housing, the economically affordable housing and the commodity housing at restricted price, and provide the housing security product at different levels for different groups.

     With the adjustment of the housing security system, the construction of the low-rent housing has gradually developed into the focus of China's housing security system. In October 2006, the Chinese Government required to broaden the fund raising sources and accelerate the construction of the low-rent housing in the Decisions by the Central Committee of the CPC on Some Major Issues in Building a Harmonious Socialist Society. According to the document, the Ministry of Construction circulated the information about the construction of the low-rent housing system in different cities on February 13, 2007. According to the Ministry of Construction, 512, or 77.9%, of the 657 cities across the nation had established the low-rent housing system by the end of 2006. Of the 512 cities, 283, or 98.6%, of the 287 cities at the municipal level and above had built the low-rent housing system, and 229, or 61.9%, of the 370 county-level cities had set up the low-rent housing system. More than 90% of the cities in provinces of Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hebei, Jiangxi, Gansu, Shaaxi, Jiangsu and Hubei had built the low-rent housing system. Various cities planned to offer a total of 150,000 low-rent houses, covering a combined area of 8.3756 million square meters, in the years of 2006 and 2007, such houses would be either newly built or sourced from acquired old houses. By the end of 2006, 53,000 low-rent houses have started construction or been acquired with a cumulative building area of 2.9368 million square meters. Up till the end of 2006, a total of 547,000 low-income families had benefited from the low-rent housing system and improved the housing conditions. In the meanwhile, the Ministry of Construction also pointed out that there were still some obvious problems associated with the construction of the low-rent housing system. These problems were mainly related to the further improvement of the system, funding, coverage, operating mechanism and construction progress with respect to the low-rent housing.

   To solve the problems, Premier Wen Jiabao chaired over the executive meeting of the State Council on August 1, 2007, and the meeting discussed the Certain Opinions of the State Council on Solving the Housing Difficulty of Urban Low-income Families. The document holds that the housing conditions of urban residents have been greatly bettered due to the rapid development of the urban housing construction as of the reform. However, the construction of the urban low-rent housing system still remains backward, and part of the urban low-income families still has housing difficulty. The solution to the housing difficulty of urban low-income families shall be made an important content of the housing construction and the reform of the housing system, and as an important responsibility of the government public services. Moreover, the policy system, the core of which is the low-rent housing system, shall be established and perfected at a faster pace to solve the housing difficulty of urban low-income families with multiple channels. It is worth noticing that the basic policy framework for the low-rent housing system put forward by the Opinions is to distribute the rent subsidy or provide low-rent houses for the lowest-income families with housing difficulty and the low-income families that are unable to buy the economically affordable houses. The policy framework has thus expanded the stipulation that the low-rent housing is only applicable to the lowest-income families under the Circular of the State Council on Further Deepening the Urban Housing System Reform and Accelerating Housing Construction issued in 1998 to the low-income families with housing difficulty.

   The Opinions has come up with the specific requirements for the construction and allocation of low-rent houses. First, gradually expand the coverage of the low-rent housing system. By the end of 2007, all the cities having districts shall basically provide as much security as possible for the urban low-income families with housing difficulty that reach the standard for housing difficulty and apply for rent subsidy of low-rent housing, and by the end of 2008, all the counties shall basically provide the security for all the low-income families with housing difficulty. By the end of the Eleventh Five-year Plan period, the coverage of the low-rent housing system shall be extended from the urban lowest-income families to the low-income families with housing difficulty, and by the end of 2008, the eastern regions and other regions having the conditions shall expand the coverage to the low-income families with housing difficulty. Second, expand the source of the low-rent housing through multiple channels. The provision of the low-rent housing shall be increased by means of new construction by government, acquisition, reconstruction and encouragement of social donations. The newly built low-rent housing will mainly be built in the residential communities of economically affordable houses and common commodity houses, and may also be built in a relatively concentrated way. Actively develop the house leasing market, and encourage real estate development enterprises to develop the medium and small housing types and lease them to the society. Last, ensure the funding source for the low-rent housing. The local fiscal departments shall include the low-rent housing security fund into the annual budget; the gains from the appreciation of the housing provident fund shall be fully used for the construction of the low-rent housing after the preparation of the provisions against loan risks and management expenses; at least 10% of the net proceeds from the transfer of lands shall be used as the low-rent housing security fund; the income from the low-rent housing shall be managed independently of the funding source, and be specially used for the maintenance and management of the low-rent housing; and the financial aids will be offered to the fiscally tight central and western regions in the forms of the budgeted investment subsidy of the central government and the special subsidizing fund for the low-rent housing security from the central government. The Opinions also requires to improve the residential conditions of other groups with housing difficulty in cities, accelerate the reconstruction of the concentrated slum areas, actively promote the comprehensive treatment of the old residential areas, and better the residential conditions of farmer workers through various channels.

   As to the economically affordable housing, the Opinions requires that the economically affordable houses shall be supplied to the urban low-income families with housing difficulty, and the target users of such houses shall be linked up with the target of the low-rent housing security; the building area shall be controlled at about 60 square meters; the buyer shall only own the limited property right, and shall not directly enter the market for sale within five years after the purchase; when it is indeed necessary to transfer the house, the house shall be bought back by the government in line with the original price, the depreciation, and the general price level; and in the case of the transfer five years after the purchase, the buyer shall pay a specified proportion of the difference between the price of the common commodity housing in the same area and the price of the economically affordable housing to the government as the profit from land.   When it comes to the construction of commodity houses, the Opinions asks to focus on the development of common commodity houses with small and medium housing type and medium and low prices to boost the effective housing supply. As to a housing development project that is newly approved and started in a city, the area combined of the houses with an individual area of below 90 square meters shall be at least 70% of the total construction area of the development project. The annual supply of land used for the construction of the low-rent housing, the economically affordable housing and the common commodity housing of the small and medium housing type at the medium-to-low price shall not be lower than 70% of the total supply of land for residential use. 

   China still remains at the stage of exploring the housing security system continuously, still has a number of problems in the construction, allocation and transfer of the economically affordable housing, the price-limited housing and the low-rent housing, and needs to keep improving the construction and actual operation of the system. However, the Chinese Government has, in general, demonstrated that it is clearly conscious about and highly responsible for the housing right of its citizens with its vigorous efforts to explore the housing security system. And the right of everyone to adequate housing, an ideal for the harmonious society, is becoming an objective for the government and the whole society to realize. 

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Chang Jian, Vice Dean of Zhou Enlai School of Government, Managing Vice Director of Center for Study of Human Rights, Director of the MPA Education Center, Nankai University; Guo Wei, a Ph.D candidate at Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University.