Policy Interventions for the Private Rental Sector in Chinese Megacities based on Empirical Studies from the Netherlands, Germany, and France

A well-operating private rental housing market is a necessity for postindustrial economies worldwide, particularly for residents in megacities. However, financialized housing markets led to increasing difficulties to realize housing property ownership for both the local young generation and newcomers which we called ‘Generation rent’. Taking Shanghai as an example, a 60 square meters apartment downtown is worth approximately ninety-eight years of the median annual earnings of a Shanghai citizen. We can see people`s decreasing affordability of housing, especially in megacities. It was not until 2015 that an emphasis on developing private rental housing was sealed as a new way of coping with housing affordability and maintaining social stability via formal regulations and documents by the Chinese central government. For now, generation rent is still facing rising housing financial risks, housing spatial differentiation, etc. Therefore, there is still a long way to go for the Chinese private rental housing market and priority should be given to the megacities. Meanwhile, rents on private rental housing in several EU countries are regulated with a comprehensive rent regulation system. The Netherlands, Germany, and France are selected for further investigation on the basis of similar backgrounds, including the housing dilemma and transitions in the housing system. These three countries have strongly intervened in the private rental housing market and found some approaches from the previous stage to promote this renting alternative availably in the context of different political traditions and market conditions. Hence, it is of great need to systematically draw lessons from them to provide guidance in addressing the sustainable development of the private rental housing market in China. The main research question has been formulated as followed: “How to provide high-quality and affordable private rental housing for ‘generation rent’ in Chinese megacities?” And three sub-questions are developed. The study will start by examining the Chinese housing market in different stages through literature reviews and quantitative methods to answer the question: “How is the evolution of housing tenure structures in Chinese megacities and how is the interplay between Chinese private rental housing market and policy interventions in terms of supply and demand?” The second question will be answered by a comparative analysis of private rental housing markets in the Netherlands, Germany, and France to compare what the differences are in terms of government roles, and intervention measures in each stage under different political contexts. The third part will deeply explore the demand characteristics of different groups for private rental housing in one megacity (Shanghai) through a field survey. And it will facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the intrinsic logic of the interplay between policy intervention and the reactions of different stakeholders by the Delphi method and geographically weighted regression method. Finally, the study will systematically draw lessons from the housing systems of private rental market regulation in the Netherlands, Germany, and France to answer the research question “What kind of policies that have proved effective could be adopted in the Chinese private rental market?”