Opportunities and constraints of real estate development in China : a case study of Shanghai

Abstract

The thesis aims to investigate the opportunities and constraints of the China real estate market and amend the inadequacy in existing literature by providing a systematic, comprehensive and up-to-date study of the market for further research to build on. The inadequacy of existing China real estate literature lied in its fragmentation and inconsistency. While English language literature were often focused on specific aspect or period of the market development and provides only fragmented reference material for research purpose, the more affluent Chinese language literature was frequently questioned for the objectivity of interpretation and point of view. The problem was redressed in this thesis by a systematic collection and organization of existing literature on the subject and the incorporation of the essence into one study. By devising an institutional approach to the subject the thesis reached beyond the transient phenomenon and identifies three levels of problems, respectively the operational, structural and contextual, of the real estate market of China. It was found that although recent market readjustment and government interference had significantly improved the operational and structural factors of the market and created new opportunities through the streamlining of administrative procedures and enhancement of legislation etc., problems on the contextual level, which were hardly affected, remain a major constraint for future development. Issue addressed in the thesis also includes the positioning of real estate research. Real estate studies traditionally scattered over separate disciplines instead of in its own right. The same was true with China real estate studies, where the economics, geographic, legal and finance etc. aspects of the teal estate market were studied individually but seldom linked. The thesis inquired into existing real estate philosophies and examine the common foundation from which different disciplines within the real estate paradigm stemmed, and established a conceptual framework for the study of the China real estate market which bound separated efforts into one integrated analysis. A case study of the real estate market development of the largest city in China, the Shanghai City, has been conducted in which the causes of the serious oversupply in the office sector are investigated to verify the established postulations.