Occupancy, usage and spatial location of second homes in urban China

Since the late 1980s, homeownership in China has rapidly increased, and along with it the phenomenon of second homes. While research on multiple homes in China has examined second homes' ownership and tenure choice, little is known about the usage and spatial location of second homes. Using the nationally representative data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey, this paper aims at documenting and analyzing the occupancy, usage and location of second homes of urban households in China. About 20% of urban households in China own second homes. Their leading usages are vacancy, renting and helping relatives, with only small percentages used for weekday commuting and leisure. Second homes' usage is influenced by the household's life cycle, socioeconomic status, the homes' and regional characteristics, and it differs among commodity housing and policy-related housing. Second homes are more common in large cities and in heavily urbanized areas, and they tend to be in relative proximity to primary homes. Unlike mature housing markets in Western countries where second homes are used primarily for leisure and income-generation, multiple homeownership in urban China reflects both family life cycle and institutional constraints more so than leisure pursuit.