Standards of Rural Housing Construction Land Based on the Utility Function: An Example of 11 Districts and Counties over Northeastern Chongqing Municipality

It is necessary to ensure the fundamental functions of rural household land and achieve a balance between the national policies of intensive land use and the consumption level of rural areas for rural housing construction. It is, therefore, of great importance to measure and then establish standards for rural household land use which can satisfy both the farmers’ consumption needs and the national needs for protecting cultivated land. The authors in the present work measured standards of rural housing construction using the consumer utility function constrained by farmers’ budgetary expenditures. Subsequently, we analyzed 1366 questionnaires using multivariate linear regression models, with the objective to examine and quantify the farmers’ preference weights and demand intensity. On the basis of this, it can be concluded that the optimal average area of rural household satisfying the optimal utility of household land is roughly between 166.91 and 190.82 m2 per homestead and between 42.79 and 49.56 m2 per person, both of which are quite different from the current situation of utilization of rural household land over the study area. Conclusions can be drawn that there is large potential of intensive land use for rural housing construction over northeastern Chongqing. Furthermore, it is of great feasibility to explore the potential for intensive land use. Policy implications are provided, including effectively promoting exploration of the household land and establishing advanced mechanisms for intensive land use of rural housing construction.