Measures of Affordable Housing and Applications on Beijing Data 2004-2013

Abstract: With the change in political and economic situations, increased urbanization and the growing population in China leads to extended housing needs, which results in various problems for the real estate market, such as the pronounced rise of housing price and unreasonable housing supply system. At present, the major issue that the government is facing with is how to improve the housing availability and provide space to the urban residents to solve the problem that many urban residents are unable to afford housing. In order to fully understand the housing market in Beijing city, this paper adopted quantitative methods of Housing Price to Income Ratio, Residual Income, and the Housing Affordability Index to examine the housing affordability of Beijing urban residents from 2004 to 2013, based upon the data collected from Beijing Statistic Yearbook mostly. The analysis revealed that there is a declining trend of housing affordability in Beijing and the gap between residential housing prices and urban households’ incomes and the difference between the poor and the rich is obvious.