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ULI Supported 2nd International Symposium on "Future of Public Housing" Held at Fudan University, Shanghai on August 29th and 30th
September 11, 2012
The two-day ULI-supported 2nd International Symposium on “the Future of Public Housing” ended in the evening of August 30, 2012 at Fudan University. It was a very successful event with senior government officials and leading scholars attending the event.
Liu Haisheng, Director of Shanghai Municipal Housing and Building Administration Bureau, delivered the opening speech at the symposium. Gu Yunchang, Vice President of China Real Estate Research Association, gave the keynote speech, which was followed by fourteen 45-minute presentations by world-renowned scholars on housing policy from the U.S., UK, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China.
John Fitzgerald, Executive Director for ULI Asia Pacific, as well as several ULI members participated in a panel discussion on the first day of the symposium. Below are the main issues and insights shared in the panel discussion.
John Fitzgerald gave an overview of ULI’s activities in the area of public housing / affordable housing, especially through ULI Terwilliger Center (http://americas.uli.org/advisory-boards/j-ronald-terwilliger/); in particular, John explained ULI’s initiative of incorporating transportation costs in estimating true housing costs; in many suburban locations in the U.S., transportation costs can represent over 20% of the household income.
Henry Cheng, CEO of Chongbang Group, gave his view of who constitute “emerging middle class” and their key lifestyle preferences and aspirations; he also explained his firm’s focus on this emerging middle class and its business model of incorporating a large shopping center / retail component to provide shopping and entertainment amenities for the residents.
Richard Vogel, China head of Ivanhoe Cambridge, discussed how mainland Chinese retail consumers have transformed over the last two decades and how shopping centers have evolved to meet the consumers’ changing needs; he also explained how well-positioned retail shopping centers in or near low-income residential neighborhoods can improve the quality of life for the residents through helping to create community centers and reducing travel time.
David Yu, Founding Partner of Llinkslaw Office, gave an overview of the various types of housing with government involvement and relevant legal issues.
Ken Rhee, CEO of Huhan Business Advisory and ULI Chief Representative for mainland China, discussed the issues of bare-shell delivery of residential units and relatively low density development model in Shanghai; the bare-shell condition of residential units at the point of sale transfers the responsibility of fitting out the interior to buyers, resulting in poor quality of finished products and inefficiencies; moreover, bare-shell units can sit empty for a long period, thus reducing supply of rental properties, aggravating housing shortage, and driving up housing price; regarding the topic of low density, Ken discussed the relatively low density of Shanghai compared to other world cities such as New York and Singapore and how the low density model pursued by Shanghai has made it difficult to redevelop the urban core and led to a substantial decline in new residential supply, resulting in a nearly three-fold increase in price over the last five years.
城市土地学会（ULI）赞助了8月29-30日在上海复旦大学举办的第二届“公共住房的未来”国际研讨会
由城市土地学会（ULI）参与赞助的为期两天的第二届“公共住房的未来”国际研讨会于2012年8月30日晚在复旦大学闭幕。会议取得圆满成功，许多高级政府官员以及相关领域顶尖学者参与了此次国际研讨会。
上海市住房保障和房屋管理局局长刘海生致了研讨会开幕辞。中国房地产研究会副会长顾云昌作了主旨演讲。之后由来自美国、英国、法国、荷兰、瑞典、匈牙利、韩国、新加坡、香港及中国大陆等地的房地产政策领域闻名世界的学者提供了14场演讲，每场近45分钟。
城市土地学会亚太区执行董事费约翰，以及其他几位ULI会员在研讨会第一天参与了一个小组讨论环节。以下是小组讨论主要关注的问题及见解分享：
费约翰跟在座嘉宾分享了ULI在公共住房/可支付住房领域的一些活动情况，特别是通过城市土地学会特威利格中心（ULI Terwilliger Center, www.uli.org/advisory-boards/j-ronald-terwilliger/） 举办的活动。费约翰还特别提到了ULI在估算真实住房成本时考虑了交通成本因素。在美国许多郊区，交通成本达家庭收入的20%之高。
崇邦集团总裁郑秉泽同来宾分享了他本人关于“新兴中产阶级”的定义，以及这部分“新兴中产阶级”偏爱和向往的生活方式。他还提到其公司关注中产阶级客群，商业模式为开发持有大型购物中心/零售物业组团为周边居民提供购物和娱乐设施。
亿万豪剑桥中国区总经理华歌（Richard Vogel）讨论了中国大陆消费者在过去20年中如何转变以及购物中心如何改变自身以迎合消费者不断变化的需求。他还说明了靠近低收入社区但定位良好的购物中心可以通过形成社区中心并减少出行时间进而提高辖区内居民的生活质量。
通力律师事务所创始合伙人俞卫锋阐述了由政府参与建设的各公共住房类型以及相关法律问题。
沪汉商务咨询总裁及ULI中国大陆地区首席代表李建学（Kenneth Rhee）讲述了住宅毛坯交付及上海相对低密度开发模式等相关问题。住宅毛坯交付时，开发商将住宅内部装修的责任转移给了买方，往往导致装修质量差、效率低等问题。此外，毛坯房可以长期空置，相应减少了可出租住房的供应数量，加剧住房短缺，进而推动住宅价格上升。关于低密度开发，他将上海与世界上其他城市如美国纽约和新加坡等进行了比较，并说明了上海的低密度开发模式不利于城市核心的再开发，因而城市核心新住宅供应量的大量减少，最终导致过去5年间住宅价格呈现近3倍的增长。