The temporal variation of housing financialisation: a case study of China

Abstract

Responding to the call for a greater attention to the inherited variations in housing financialisation, this paper contributes by bringing in a constructivist perspective in exploring how financialisation gradually unfolds in a particular context. Drawing on the case of China, two interrelated arguments are made. First, a structural and temporal distinction is made between three phases of housing commodification, speculation and financialisation 1.0, where significant differences are noticed between the ownership structures, housing rights, markets, returns and motivations from a constructivist perspective. Second, these phases are systemically interrelated as a result of the state-market ne..