China tries to reassure homeowners over land rights
Ministry tells urban owners that they won’t have to pay more after their land rights expire, but analysts say the issue must be clarified in a law
China’s land ministry has assured the country’s urban homeowners that they won’t have to pay extra money for their properties when their underlying land use rights expire, at least for now.
But the country’s so-called land public ownership system, which offers the state unrestricted power to seize land and profit from deals, could continue to haunt the country’s quest for long-term stability and prosperity, according to analysts.
Under China’s existing law, all urban land is owned by the state and cannot be traded, but in reality it is often in the hands of local governments. They can sell “land use rights” of 20 to 70 years tenure to developers.
Millions of urban Chinese households own private property, but it means there is a legal limbo on what happens if the rights to land use expire.
In Wenzhou, a city in the coastal province of Zhejiang, the local government shocked the country earlier this year by demanding local residents pay a hefty fee to renew the “land use rights” for their homes when their 20-year leases expired.