Intraurban Residential Relocation in Shanghai: Modes and Stratification

Housing marketisation provides an opportunity for households to choose their residences. However, not all households benefit equally from residential relocation. This paper uses a recent residential survey in Shanghai to examine different relocation modes and their implications for housing consumption. The findings suggest that better education, absence of work-unit affiliation, higher expectation for housing consumption, and the move from the outer to inner areas are more likely to be associated with active relocation through commodity housing purchase. Residential relocation in urban China has a stronger association with the household's position within the spectrum from state redistribution to market reward than with life cycles and consequent adjustment of housing demand which are the primary reasons for residential mobility in a mature market. Household income, the educational level, and previous housing space are determinants of changing housing consumption. Intraurban residential relocation gives a higher return to those who are better educated and who have been already in possession of larger living space, and to the move from outer to inner areas. Active relocation and workplace-housing allocation generate higher space returns to households than do other modes of relocation. Whereas pragmatic concerns for social stability plus strong tenancy rights help inner-city households gain compensation in residential relocation, urban redevelopment generates the lowest space return. Residential displacement is now becoming a contentious issue. As such, residential relocation is a process that differentiates urban space under market transition.