Nearly 90 percent of Chinese families either fully or partially own their homes, a survey by Peking University's Institute of Social Sciences showed yesterday.

And more than 10 percent of households have two or more homes, found the study of 14,960 families in Shanghai, plus Henan, Gansu, Guangdong and Liaoning provinces.

The average size of a home owned by a Chinese family is 100 square meters - 30 square meters per person, according to the survey.

Homes of families in urban areas averaged 80 square meters, while the average size of rural homes was 120 square meters.

Despite their larger size, the quality of housing facilities in rural areas still lags far behind urban areas, the survey said.

Metropolitan cities like Shanghai, meanwhile, have more families with two or more homes, the study found.

"People in Shanghai have good business sense and are more inclined to make investments, and that's why we see more families there with two houses or more," said Ren Qiang, deputy director of the institute.

"However, due to high house prices, inadequate supply and large populations in big metropolitan cities, Shanghai also has the highest ratio of families who don't own their own home."