A Comparison of Housing Welfare Policies among Major Asian Countries in the Modern Era

The regional economic crises in the late 1990s and the global economic crisis in the late 2000s had reduced the differences in housing policies among the major Asian economies. This paper attempts to explain and compare housing welfare policy shifts between subsidizing home owning and subsidized renting from the perspectives of the economic and social roles of housing, the lock-in effect of policy processes, and the welfare provision strategy of the East Asian economies. It argues that the impact of economic crises on housing welfare policy in East Asia depended on the duration and the intensity of the crisis and the length and severity of the subsequent economic depression. Another important factor was the role of housing in the economic and social development, especially whether housing market development was considered as an engine of economic growth or revival, and whether the tools of housing policy caused the economic crisis. The loss of impetus for home ownership drive and the new emphasis on rental subsidy provision are new policy trends. Nonetheless, the economic revival since mid-2009 has caused the re-introduction of home ownership subsidies for quenching the housing affordability problems and enhancing home ownership making use of the strong economic conditions.