A cross-national study on housing development in Asian transitional countries: Hong Kong, Korea (South), Singapore and Taiwan (The Republic of China).

In Taiwan, as well as in the newly industrialized countries of Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore, the housing stock and its physical condition are much better than those of most developing countries. The problems of housing development are a matter of quality rather than quantity and of distribution rather than production. Beyond the strategies of site- and services and upgrading found in developing nations, we must consider another aspect of housing development study for these transitional countries. This study undertakes a comprehensive and comparative analysis of national housing development and strategies in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Focused on the relationships among public, private, and populace sectors, this dissertation develops a data-based perspective on the major policy and socio-economic issues that shape the housing development and strategies in this study group. Experiences learned by these transitional nations may be useful to developing countries. The study contains the following analysis and findings. (1) National housing policy and development are placed within a larger context of multi-sector analysis. Housing policy and development are judged by four criteria: political/effectiveness, economic/efficiency, cultural/equity and physical/quality. (2) The level of economic development partly determines the amount of resources that can be released for housing purposes. With remarkable economic and social growth in recent decades, all of the nations in this study group have connected their housing policy to a national development plan and have made obvious improvement in solving their housing problems. (3) The use of this type of comparative analysis is good for studying national housing policy and development owing to the fact that the issue of high vacancy rate in Taiwan is not a necessary thing. A cross-national study is helpful to probe into the facts as well as get insight of some practical lessons. (4) Both of Hong Kong and Singapore have effective public housing authority thanks to the fact that they have a well-established housing authority and institutionalized financing system. Taiwan can learn good lessons from these two countries at these aspects. Even though the experiences of Hong Kong's and Singapore's public housing development are not models that Taiwan can follow. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)PhDUrban planningUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161880/1/8813018.pd