One of the most dramatic shifts in housing systems occurred during the 1980s and 1990s, when China transitioned from a socialist, state-led housing system toward as more market-based housing market. This transition occurred in tandem with broader economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s that transformed China’s centrally planned, socialist economy to a competition-driven and market-oriented one.

By examining the relationship between housing reforms, and resultant housing construction and household residential location choices respectively, this chapter speaks to the first theme of this volume, which focuses on how urbanization in China has been shaped by state interventions and associated social, economic, and physical interactions. Specifically, we ask,: Did each successive wave of construction after major urban housing reforms in 1998 contribute to more expensive residential housing units being more closely clustered together and located further away from lower-priced housing units?