Housing privatisation has been one of key features of reform during the 198
0s and the 1990s in many countries. Chinese housing reform has attracted at
tention because of its distinctive features and there have been a number of
commentaries on the general progress of urban housing reform policies. How
ever, there has been no systematic study of the development of commercial h
ousing in Chinese cities. The aim of this paper is to provide an up-to-date
account of commercial housing development, It examines the scale of invest
ment during the early 1990s, the development process, quality and design st
andards, the commercial housing market and the management of residential es
tates. The conclusions draw attention to several important problems of comm
ercial housing development including the lack of appropriate legislation an
d control, the mismatch of housing supply and affordability, and the underd
eveloped nature of the urban housing market.