1978-1990

Xi’an announce 2nd edition master plan 1980-2000 in this period. The planned population in Xi’an is 1.8 million on the urban region of 162 sq.km. The whole country focuses on the development again and it’s a period of breaking down the work-unit system. In the 1980, the land ownership has changed in to state-ownership in the urban area of Xi’an mostly, inner city has no private land left. (China adopts two land ownership systems, i.e. state-owned land ownership and collective land ownership. In China, the land ownership is separate from the land use right, the term of land use rights vary with different land usages.) From 1980-1990, there are 13000000 sq.m housing built in 10 years, the average of living area has increased to 6.19 sq.m which is twice larger than 1950s in general. Nonetheless, registrations shows that there around 30000 people with no housing at all, and 13000 inhabitants with the living area less than 2 sq.m, and 45% of total housing are temporally structure urban slums. This could be considered as the foreshadowing the demand of the regeneration the inner city.

1990-Present

With the decentralization of fiscal authority, local government of Xi’an have gained increasing autonomy over the economic development within their jurisdictions\cite{Yan2003Politics}. In 1990, the state leased the “Leasing and Transfer of the Right to the Use of the State-Owned Land” and “ Ordinance of Foreign Investments and State-Owned Land”Ministry of Land and Resources, PRC, 1990 which remarks the total opening real estate market and the beginning of property-led regeneration process. In 1995, 3rd edition master plan was announced for 1995-2010. The planned population in Xi’an is 3.1 million on the central urban region of 175 sq.km. In year of 2000, the ownership transformation has complete to private owned/leased (China State Council. Notification on Public Housing Ownership Reform, 1999. In accordance with the Interim Regulations Concerning the Leasing and Transfer of the Right to the Use of the State-Owned Land in the Urban Areas, the maximum term for the leased right to use the land is determined respectively in the light of the purposes: 70 years for residential purposes; 50 years for industrial purposes; 50 years for the purposes of education, science, culture, public health and physical education; 40 years for commercial, tourist and recreational purposes; and 50 years for mixed utilization or other purposes.) in Xi’an urban area, the average living space for each inhabitants increase to 12.05 sq.m from 6.04 sq.m in 1995.