Empirical study on housing supply and urban growth in major Chinese cities

The variations of the urban housing demand depend on each city's economic and social development.The urban housing supply also affects housing prices and population growth.This paper analyzes the housing supply elasticity in 33 major Chinese cities from 2000 to 2005 and the impact of housing supply elasticity on the actual housing price and the urban population growth.Cities with smaller housing supply elasticity experience rapid housing price increases but moderate population growth;while cities with larger housing supply elasticity have lower housing price growth but higher population growth.This empirical study shows that the housing supply is closely correlated with the housing price and population growth.The large variations of the housing market conditions in different cities indicate that housing supply policy should carefully consider the harmonious development of the housing market and the urban economy.