The difficulties of housing the Chinese “sandwich class”

Jie Chen & Bernard Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine — 2011-12-21T06:00:00Z

In China, young people from the middle classes are said to belong to a “sandwich class”: they do not have enough resources to buy a property, and yet there are not enough rental properties to accommodate them. In areas where pressure on the property market is particularly high, state benefits fail to compensate a lack of assets.
China has chosen to make home ownership for all an unqualified priority, as well as the basis of its social protection and welfare system. Since 1998, and in less

- Debates / homeownership, housing, China

Access to home-ownership: what are the effects of the economic crisis?

Bernard Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine — 2011-04-20T06:30:00Z

A 70% home-ownership rate? This is the stated objective of the reform that has recently come into effect in France, even though the effects of the global financial crisis are still being felt. However, an analysis of the property situation in France puts both the risks of a policy encouraging property ownership and the challenges of the reform into perspective.
It is something of an understatement to say that the recent worldwide crisis has changed the context in which public policies

- Debates / homeownership, home-buying, financial crisis, housing, crisis

Metropolitics

The difficulties of housing the Chinese “sandwich class”

Access to home-ownership: what are the effects of the economic crisis?