Hometown landholdings and rural migrants’ housing tenure choices in urban China: Evidence from CMDS

While rural migrant housing tenure choice is a major policy concern, little is known about the association between hometown landholdings and rural migrants’ housing tenure choices. Using national micro data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), we examine the relationship between landholdings in places of origin and housing tenure choices by rural migrants in Chinese cities. By applying the probit model and the propensity score matching (PSM) method, the results clearly show that owning contracted land at hometown is positively associated with rural migrants’ housing tenure choices, while owning housing land in the place of origin is negatively associated with rural migrants’ housing tenure choices. When migrants own both types of land, the overall effect is negative. The possible mechanism is that contracted land affects rural migrants’ housing tenure choices through an economic effect, while housing land affects rural migrants’ housing tenure choice through emotional connection, which make migrants strengthen links with their hometown, interact more with fellow townspeople, and weaken their willingness to settle in the city, thus reduce the probability of buying houses. Further analysis shows that the relationship between hometown landholdings and housing tenure choices among rural migrants is highly heterogeneous across different generations and destination groups. The research conclusions of this paper are not only beneficial for improving China’s land and housing system but also have important reference significance for other countries.