Global and local housing challenges

Abstract

The grave concerns over rapidly soaring housing prices are not unique to mainland China and Hong Kong. They are widespread around the world and have intensified in the aftermath of the Great Recession incurred by the Global Financial Crises of 2008/2009. What could mainland China learn about the present housing market issues and solutions from different countries and regions of the world, in order to tackle its own? The introductory chapter sets out the international and local contexts for addressing this question, which is the theme of this book. It has two main parts. First, it reviews with some degree of analytical detail the structural changes that have been affecting housing systems with increasing intensity since the Great Recession of 2009. Then it provides a comparative context for the country experiences of the book, presented in three groups: (1) Western experiences (Australia, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, the UK, and the US); (2) East Asian experiences outside mainland China (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan; and (3) the Chinese experience prior to its present growth transition. The chapter closes with the housing policy lessons of international experience and their value for the housing policy adjustments that China needs to make during the major growth transition that it faces now.