Hometown landholdings and rural migrants' housing tenure choices in urban China: evidence from CMDS

Using national micro data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), this study investigates how landholdings in places of origin influence rural migrants' housing tenure choices in Chinese cities by employing lots of robustness checks, the findings indicate that owning contracted land in one's hometown positively correlates with urban housing tenure choice, while owning housing land in the place of origin negatively affects urban housing tenure choice. When migrants own both types of land, the overall effect is negative. The underlying mechanism suggest that contracted land promotes rural migrants' urban homeownership through economic benefits, while housing land fosters emotional ties to the hometown, reinforcing social connections, increasing interactions with fellow townspeople and weakening their willingness to settle permanently in the city. Consequently, this emotion attachment reduces the probability of purchasing urban 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. This study not only contributes to a deeper understanding of China's land and housing policies but also provides valuable insights for other countries facing similar migrant housing challenges.