Willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses: A case study of 45 villages in Henan Province, China

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2022.07.001

Abstract

Abstract:

The willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses has an important impact on local urbanization. At present, there are few researches on the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses. The existing researches mostly focus on the perspective of sociology and economics, and few studies are conducted from the perspective of geography. Based on the survey data of 45 villages in Henan Province of China in 2019, this study used binary logistic method to study the influencing factors of the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses. The willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses is affected by many factors, such as personal, family, village, and returning factors. Among them, age and returning period are negatively correlated with the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses. Factors such as years of education, years of working, and per capita income of village are positively correlated with the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses. Returning migrant workers in plains and hilly areas are more willing to purchase houses than those in mountainous areas. The formation of the willingness to purchase houses is mainly related to economic foundation, age, marital status, and other factors. Returning migrant workers are becoming more willing to purchase houses, and the expected locations are mainly concentrated in the county seats. In the context of China’s high density of rural population and rapid urbanization, more returning migrant workers are expected to purchase houses in cities and towns for the sake of employment, marriage, children’s education, and access to public services. As a result, there is an extensive market of potential purchasers, which affects the development of the local urban real estate industry and is of great significance for returning migrant workers to truly integrate into the cities. However, some returning migrant workers still choose to purchase houses in villages, mainly affected by traditional concepts, living habits, and the better development of villages. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses, so as to master the flow laws and future behavior of returning migrant workers to purchase houses.

Key words: Returning migrant workers, House purchase willingness, Binary logistic method, Urbanization, Henan Province

WANG Yuchan, GAO Genghe, NING Xiaoju, LI Yuanzheng, NIU Ning, GUO Yaqi. Willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses: A case study of 45 villages in Henan Province, China[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2022, 3(2): 133-145.

Figures/Tables 8

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Statistic		With willingness to purchase houses		Without willingness to purchase houses
Statistic		Number	Proportion (%)	Number	Proportion (%)
Total respondents		380	45.89	448	54.11
Gender	Male	235	28.38	297	35.87
Gender	Female	145	17.51	151	18.24
Marital status	Unmarried	48	5.80	79	9.54
Marital status	Married	332	40.10	369	44.57
Age	≤25 years old	68	8.21	73	8.82
	26-45 years old	192	23.19	232	28.02
	≥46 years old	120	14.49	143	17.27
Years of education	≤5 years	72	8.70	89	10.75
	6-9 years	185	22.34	230	27.78
	10-12 years	111	13.41	105	12.68
	13-14 years	12	1.45	24	2.90
Labor skill	Yes	199	24.03	242	29.23
Labor skill	No	181	21.86	206	24.88
Years of working	≤10 years	115	13.89	151	18.24
Years of working	≥10 years	265	32.00	297	35.87

Factor	Variable (unit)	Unit	Abbreviation	Description and assignment
Personal factors	Gender	-	X₁	0, female; 1, male
	Age	years	X₂	Actual age of the respondent
	Years of education	years	X₃	Actual years
	Marital status	-	X₄	0, unmarried; 1, married
	Years of working	years	X₅	Length of working time
Family factors	Number of family labors	-	X₆	Number of the labor force members in the household
	Dependency ratio	-	X₇	The dependent population divided by the labor force in the household
	Amount of arable land	0.067 hm²/household	X₈	Farmland contracted by farmers
	Economic status of family	-	X₉	Relative economic status of household in the village: 1, poor; 2, medium; 3, good
Village factors	Village terrain	-	X₁₀	1, plains; 2, hills; 3, mountains
	Per capita net income of village	CNY/year	X₁₁	Actual value
	Village labor ratio	-	X₁₂	Actual value
Returning factors	Returning method	-	X₁₃	0, returning from intra-province; 1, returning from inter-province
	Returning period	years	X₁₄	The length of time from the year of reflux to the time of the investigation
	Spatial distance	km	X₁₅	Actual value, i.e., the distance between the work site and hometown

Variable	B	SE	Wals	df	Sig.	Exp(B)
X₁	0.232	0.166	1.955	1	0.162	1.261
X₂	-0.018	0.009	3.966	1	0.046	0.982
X₃	0.028	0.033	0.682	1	0.049	1.028
X₄	-0.797	0.266	8.954	1	0.003	0.451
X₅	0.034	0.011	9.089	1	0.003	1.034
X₆	0.030	0.087	0.119	1	0.730	1.031
X₇	-0.049	0.142	0.122	1	0.727	0.952
X₈	-0.034	0.033	1.013	1	0.314	0.967
X₉	-	-	11.392	2	0.003	-
X₉(1)	-1.016	0.431	5.545	1	0.019	0.362
X₉(2)	0.039	0.318	0.015	1	0.903	1.039
X₁₀	-	-	26.684	2	0.000	-
X₁₀(1)	-2.364	0.479	24.360	1	0.000	0.094
X₁₀(2)	-2.091	0.540	14.981	1	0.000	0.124
X₁₁	0.001	0.001	47.740	1	0.000	1.000
X₁₂	1.073	0.729	2.166	1	0.141	2.924
X₁₃	-0.392	0.220	3.181	1	0.075	0.676
X₁₄	-0.073	0.021	12.276	1	0.000	0.930
X₁₅	0.000	0.000	0.070	1	0.792	1.000
Constant	3.001	0.960	9.769	1	0.002	20.101