| Individuals and institutional structure are the two perspectives in the study the housing issues. At present, it is impossible to explain and explore the housing problems in China simply from the perspective of individuals or institutions under the backdrop characterized by economic and social transition. It is also impossible to find out the real reasons and even the key point of China's housing problems.Based on the above acknowledgement, the paper focuses on China's housing problems from the perspective of the interaction between the changes of China's housing institutions and the behavior selection of demand agents. From this perspective, China's housing market system is the joint result of the demand by the behavior selection of urban residents and the supply by government institutions. However, the demand agents are at the bottom of the market structure in such a market system. The government's regulation on housing market institutions will affect the behavior of housing demand agents, while the behavior of the demand agents, in return, will influence the implementation of the institutions.Under the constraints of the existing institutions, the anticipated proceeds, including the consumption utility from the ownership and the real income from lease and transfer of the houses, are the pre-requisite for the action of the housing demand agents. Currently, most of the demand agents in China's housing market are risk-averters and loss-averters. Their decision-making process is under the influence of a variety of psychological factors. Especially under the stimulation of the model effect of successful cases and the feedback mechanisms, the housing demand agents constantly enter housing market with a purpose to obtain the expected return. From the viewpoint of groups, the demand agents act typically like a flock of sheep in the rise of residential housing prices. The fact that it is unable for us to predict the consequences of the interaction of the demand agents in current housing market may trigger market bubbles. At the same time, houses are among human necessities and the basis of human's survival. Therefore, the government intervention in the housing market is essential for the healthy development of the housing market and the development of social justice as well. But in the formation and the development of China's housing market, the government's regulation on the housing institutions is a kind of distortion to the market mechanism, and will influence the behavior of demand agents.The government and the demand agents have different conduct logic. They may come into crash or go in the same direction. According to the early experience in the reform of the housing institutions, the success of a new institution is determined by the guidance and the protection on the interest of housing demand agents. The bulletin board effect of housing prices shows the recognition of demand agents on the current housing institutions through their demand for housing, which in practice becomes a pressure on government to change the existing system.In the face of new issues in the development of the market, the new institutions must be formulated from both economic and psychological aspects to reasonably guide the behavior of demand agents. In this sense, the transition of housing institutions is virtually a continuous process that the demand agents become aware of and make behavior selection of the existing housing institutions. |
