Housing markets and government intervention in East Asian countries

초록

Housing has a number of distinctive characteristics, which means that the market does not work in the smooth functioning way that is claimed for other goods, and so produces neither an optimal level of output, nor an equitable distribution of that output. The rationale for government intervention in the housing market in many countries has generated a lengthy debate on the relationships between economic and political structures, and the established housing system. If so, how have governments played their role in the housing market? And more specifically, why does the state intervene? In this study, we focus on Confucian states, including China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Government intervention in the housing market is mainly due to the minimal 'bottom up' practice of the housing policy tradition in most East Asian countries. We could see some convergence, as the East Asian countries move towards a property-owning model, by addressing the new forms of inequality generated by the emphasis on an individual homeownership-biased housing policy, and government intervention. © 2013 Copyright The Institute of Urban Sciences.

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