Place, Capital Flows and Property Regimes: The Elites’ Former Houses in Beijing’s South Luogu Lane

• Main Authors: Zhifen Cheng, Shangyi Zhou, Stephen Young
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014-12-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: place-making; capital flows; property regimes; elites’ former houses; Beijing
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/1/398

Place is seen as a process whereby social and cultural forms are reproduced. This process is closely linked to capital flows, which are, in turn, shaped by changing property regimes. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship between property regimes, capital flows and place-making. The goal of this paper is to highlight the role of changing property regimes in the production of place. Our research area is South Luogu Lane (SLL) in Central Beijing. We take elites’ former houses in SLL as the main unit of analysis in this study. From studying this changing landscape, we draw four main conclusions. First, the location of SSL was critical in enabling it to emerge as a high-status residential community near the imperial city. Second, historical patterns of capital accumulation influenced subsequent rounds of private investment into particular areas of SLL. Third, as laws relating to the ownership of land and real estate changed fundamentally in the early 1950s and again in the 1980s, the target and intensity of capital flows into housing in SLL changed too. Fourth, these changes in capital flow are linked to ongoing changes in the place image of SLL.