Affordable Housing Under a Shared Economy
Imagine spending up to 7 million dollars on a regular 1400 square feet apartment in big cities like New York. Most people would look elsewhere, such as buying a bigger house on the countryside for the same if not cheaper price. Yet such an option is not available for an average Chinese citizen living in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where even an apartment located in the outer reaches of the city can cost as high as 3 million RMB. Granted, the current exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Chinese Yuan is 1 to 7. Yet, the average income of a Chinese city dweller is the same as his American counterpart number-wise.
Affordable housing is a dire wicked problem in China. With 20 million people living in big cities, the younger generations may work their entire life without a place to call their own. Many city dwellers are beginning to look elsewhere for options. One trend for those who came from other provinces is to save and buy an apartment in his or her own province where the price is much cheaper and affordable. Yet for those whose dream is to make it in the big city, this can be cruel and soul crushing.
Many stakeholders have tackled the problem of affordable housing without success. Private and nation-owned real estate companies have came up with their own solutions recently that can be only called a temporary remedy at best. Companies such as Harbour Apartments are building long-term rental apartments that offers furnitures, integrated community, complementary services such as gym and common areas, benefits that traditional rental apartments offered by home owners don’t have. The success of this solution depends heavily on the emergence of a new type of economy, the Sharing Economy.
Under the Sharing Economy, where sharing of physical and intellectual resources is praised, the boundary between ownership and temporary usage will be blurred. In terms of housing, this would mean that we would dwell from apartments to apartments in the city without ever owning more than the things we need. The future of long-term rental apartments is unclear in China given that legal ownership of houses is only no more than 70 years. Yet deep-rooted Chinese traditions such as “安家立业” (An jia li ye), which means to settle down and have one’s career, might be in conflict with the radical new idea of a shared economy.
In any case, our resources are limited. The world’s population will continue to grow. Only by sharing instead of claiming resources for our own can we have long-term prosperity in the future.
