Holding a share of “city stock”? Second home ownership and land finance under urban entrepreneurialism

This paper examines the role of municipal land finance in households' second home ownership under urban entrepreneurialism. We found that the extent of municipal reliance on land finance was positively related to the local second home ownership, mediated by the housing prices effect and urban expansion effect. Unleased second homes are associated with higher land finance level to a greater extent. On the contrary, the odds of investment in a second home outside one's city of residence decrease with the land finance level of the city. The exceptional likelihood of second home ownership for entrepreneurs implies that the entrepreneurial state and entrepreneurs' interests are bonded in effective use of housing for capital accumulation. The findings suggest that a continuous reliance on the land finance system may intensify the housing assets stratification. By exploring the relationship between state-led capital accumulation and households’ wealth accumulation, this study provides a more holistic view to understand the new form of housing differentiation, and contributes to the literature of second homes by offering an explanation about between-city variation for the more mundane forms of absentee property ownership.