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Home owners not for real
By Zhang Guifeng |
May 16, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AT first glance, China has a very high rate of home ownership. But don't take it seriously.
First, in Chinese cities, you can own a house for no more than 70 years. In other words, what most Chinese urbanites have are nothing but a rented house with a rental period of 70 years. In the countryside, farmers cannot trade their houses. Therefore, rural home ownership is not a perfect private ownership either.
Second, the cost of owning a house in Chinese cities dwarfs the world average by a huge margin. In most big and medium Chinese cities, the housing price to income ration is often 10 to 1 or even 20 to 1, much more unreasonable than the world's average of 3 to 1 or 6 to 1. With a heavy debt burden from banks, many Chinese home owners cannot be said to be real owners.
First, in Chinese cities, you can own a house for no more than 70 years. In other words, what most Chinese urbanites have are nothing but a rented house with a rental period of 70 years. In the countryside, farmers cannot trade their houses. Therefore, rural home ownership is not a perfect private ownership either.
Second, the cost of owning a house in Chinese cities dwarfs the world average by a huge margin. In most big and medium Chinese cities, the housing price to income ration is often 10 to 1 or even 20 to 1, much more unreasonable than the world's average of 3 to 1 or 6 to 1. With a heavy debt burden from banks, many Chinese home owners cannot be said to be real owners.
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