China’s planned mega-cities contain hidden, informal housing markets. We analyse Shanghai’s ‘group rental’ market in which formal commercial and residential units have been illegally converted into extremely crowded dormitories. In 2016, we collected more than 33,000 online classified advertisements for beds in group rental apartments and find that this market serves a specific demographic with robust preference order patterns. Furthermore, groundtruthing fieldwork revealed that the scraped online data misrepresented the market. Therefore, we also collected a second set of ‘real’ market data for comparative analysis. The study highlights both the exciting possibilities and the limitations of using online content to study informality.

No abstract

Persistent urbanization is challenging planners to reimagine the absorptive capacities of cities. While more and more city dwellers respond to the challenge with informal solutions, policy and planning responses have fallen short of providing compelling answers. We propose redirecting attention to the use of land. This paper develops a model that centers on the role of land use regulation in conditioning and sustaining housing informality. Taking variations in income, location, and regulation into account, our framework uncovers the effective, household-level regulatory burden. Using this model to audit existing land use regimes gives planners the tools to plan effectively for targeted adjustments.

No abstract

In recent years, digitalization has reshaped the housing search. Today, online platforms facilitate housing market information exchange and expand the legibility of the housing market for sellers, buyers, landlords, and renters. Such platforms can democratize information access and diversify homeseekers’ information supplies. This in turn can expand choice sets, increase search radii, reduce search costs, and sideline traditional gatekeepers to help homeseekers realize a more efficient housing search with a superior outcome. However, certain market participants benefit more than others, and the promise of digitalization is muted by its drawbacks. This paper explores how these online platforms shape the housing search by influencing information supplies, presentation, and consumption. Tensions arise as old gatekeepers develop new strategies to maintain power in the digital realm and new gatekeepers emerge to capitalize on digital trends. Policymakers can play an important role in maintaining and developing the societal benefits of housing market digitalization while better mitigating its harms.