Urban Housing in China: Irrational Exuberance or Rapid Growth?

This lecture will review the performance of urban housing markets in China, focusing on the last two decades of high urban population growth, city expansion, and rapid increases in residential housing prices. After sketching the context of Chinese urban housing markets, it will review the sources of housing demand, recent policy initiatives to moderate housing prices, and the challenges of estimating housing price indexes. It will argue that demand is sufficient to maintain high housing prices in many cities over the coming decade, and that local government indebtedness carries more risk for China’s urban economy than the housing market.

 

Gregory K. Ingram was President and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy from June 2005 through June 2014 and formerly Director-General, Operations Evaluation at the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Ingram was Associate Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Mr. Ingram holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University; a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University; and a B.S. in civil engineering from Swarthmore College.