When Universal and Legally Secured Property Rights are not Necessary for Market Growth: The Politics and Reality of Chinese Urban Redevelopment 2002–2005 Christian Percy Received: 3 November 2009 / Accepted: 11 April 2010 / Published online: 23 May 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract This study uses developments in China's urban housing market from 2002 to 2005 to engage with a hypothesis drawn from the Rule of Law discourse, that secure property rights across market participants are necessary for effective market growth. This particular market has been characterized by both significant demand- side growth and weak property rights for private home owners, contradicting the hypothesis. There are various theoretical objections to this hypothesis, but by focusing on a specific market, I isolate key factors to rephrase the hypothesis, emphasising pragmatism and structural market predictability as a substitute for formal and universal property rights. Indeed, formally weak property rights may in this instance have been a partial and temporary driver of market growth. Keywords Rule of Law . Economics . Chinese legal reform . Property market . Urban renewal . Rights Hypothesis . Property rights Abbreviations CECC US Congressional-Executive Commission on China GJ Guoji Jinrong Bao (a newspaper-lit. International Finance News) HD Huadong Xinwen (a newspaper-lit. East China News) RRHWB Renmin Ribao Haiwai Ban (newspaper-lit. People’ s Daily Overseas Edition) JNSB Jiangnan Shibao (a newspaper-lit. South Yangzi Times) JHSB Jinghua Shibao (a newspaper-lit. Capital Times) RR Renmin Ribao (a newspaper-lit. People’ s Daily) SCB Shichang Bao (a newspaper-lit. Market News) SCMP South China Morning Post Law is often conceptually linked to economic development and market growth, particularly in the Western tradition. This is most apparent in the Law and East Asia (2010) 27:245–265 DOI 10.1007/s12140-010-9114-z C. Percy (*) Cambridge, England, UK e-mail: cwspercy@gmail.com