I. Main issues involving unreasonable housing prices:
(1) Current status of the social issue:
1. In 2006, Fujian Province saw a real estate trading area of 35.15 million square meters, an increase of 21%, with sales reaching 116.503 billion yuan, growing by 46.3%. Based on this, the average price of commercial housing rose by 20.8%, ranking among the top provinces (cities) nationwide. The increase in real estate sales prices directly increased the real estate industry's tax revenue by nearly 2 billion yuan.
2. Historically, the overall growth rate of housing prices in Fujian Province has been lower than that of similar cities along the coast. The significant investment opportunities formed by the long-term accumulated price gap and the self-residential demand spurred by the continuous growth of residents' income were released together in 2006, driving the hot sales of real estate and the continued "catch-up" increase in housing prices. Additionally, urbanization-driven urban construction is expected to add 500,000 new urban residents annually, while old city renovations produce nearly 50,000 demolition households each year, continuously creating a considerable scale of passive self-residential demand.
3. From the data of the first half of 2005, the total planned development volume for the entire province was 20 million square meters, basically level with the previous year. The supply of completed affordable housing accounted for only 3.0% of the supply of commercial residential properties, and the investment completed accounted for only 4.19% of the investment in commercial residential property construction, still relatively low.
4. A notable feature during the "two sessions" of Fujian Province in 2007 was the special attention given to housing price issues by representatives and committee members. At the recently concluded fifth session of the ninth meeting of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, there were more than ten proposals related to property prices. Committee member Liao Yixin said that the rise in housing prices in our province ranks among the top in the country, bringing great difficulties to various aspects of work. The government should soon introduce and implement policies for subsidized rental housing. Committee member Jiang Xiding believed that the purchase conditions for affordable housing should be appropriately relaxed so that more people can enjoy affordable housing, which could also effectively curb the rise in housing prices. Committee member Lin Qiang said that many families in Fuzhou City are unable to move into subsidized rental housing, while at the same time, many subsidized rental houses remain vacant. He suggested scientifically formulating policies for the development and entry of subsidized rental housing, as well as policies for access and exit. It is necessary to understand the quantity, structure, and geographical distribution of impoverished populations, define the "double difficulty" standards and assistance plans, formulate overall goals for construction and supply, and annual rolling implementation plans; meanwhile, conduct investigations every two to three years to adjust accordingly.
5. According to information obtained at the "Fujian Province New Wall Material Application Technology Exchange Meeting," if new wall materials are used during construction, it is estimated that the overall cost will be reduced by 10% to 15%, and the quality of construction will be better guaranteed, significantly reducing problems such as wall seepage and cracks. According to relevant officials from the Fujian Development New Building Materials Leadership Group Office, Fujian Province is currently vigorously promoting the application of new wall materials. According to the plan, by the end of 2010, the proportion of new wall materials applied in urban buildings will reach over 75%, where all urban areas of each district will fully adopt new wall materials, county-level urban areas will reach 60%, and established towns will reach over 35%. Rural areas should achieve breakthrough progress.
(2) Currently, from the mainstream perspective, under the influence of multiple factors, irrational increases in housing prices have been jointly promoted:
1. A very small number of developers and intermediaries take advantage of market information being non-transparent and disproportionate, falsely reporting the sales progress of commercial housing, releasing inaccurate price information, slowing down the pace of development and sales, misleading market expectations, artificially causing market tension, and leading to short-term abnormal rises in housing prices.
2. Some homebuyers worried about rising housing prices entered the market prematurely, while a few speculators engaged in speculative home purchases, further exacerbating the rise in housing prices.
3. In some cities, a small number of homebuyers have speculative purposes, driving irrational increases in housing prices.
4. Imbalance between demand and supply is the fundamental reason for the rise in housing prices. Especially the unreasonable structure of residential supply, with fewer small-sized units.
5. Cost increases and substantial land price hikes. Continuously increasing development costs are the direct cause of rising housing prices. The most prominent manifestation of cost increases is the sustained large-scale rise in land prices. Intense competition in land auctions leads to continuously high land prices. After new land prices rise, surrounding property prices immediately increase, pushing housing prices to continue to rise.
(3) Regarding countermeasures to solve this social issue, society is already conducting extensive discussions on this problem. In mainstream views, we can mainly consider the following angles:
1. Implementing consumption taxes on luxury housing and second homes or above: Real estate occupies land resources and other raw materials, and levying consumption taxes is normal; this can play a role in adjusting social wealth and social responsibility and curb the spread of property hoarding.
2. Levying value-added taxes on second-hand housing transactions
3. Implementing differential taxation systems, canceling housing subsidies, and providing tax incentives for purchasing self-occupancy housing
4. Developing energy-saving and land-conserving buildings
5. Implementing the strictest land management system, focusing on revitalizing existing construction land, and improving the intensive use of land.
6. Increasing efforts in constructing socially secured housing to improve the housing conditions of middle- and low-income groups.
7. Reasonably planning urban zoning, improving suburban disparities: improving transportation, medical care, education, and other supporting facilities in the suburbs, making it convenient for people living in the suburbs to work and live, advocating suburbanization of housing, and lowering housing prices in urban areas.
8. Using administrative measures to standardize the management of the sales process, cracking down on developers' hoarding, speculation, and price gouging behaviors.
9. Transforming the administrative management model from "project initiation first, then land allocation, then planning" to "planning first, then land approval (bidding), then project initiation," strengthening the leading role of planning in the real estate market.
10. Constructing a large amount of low-priced affordable housing to enter the market, establishing systems for selling and renting low-priced housing, and alleviating housing problems for disadvantaged groups.
11. Strengthening the supervision of commodity housing costs.
II. The State Council's latest regulations on urban housing demolition compensation:
On January 29, 2010, there were major economic news items such as the Davos Forum and reforms in new stock issuance, but none compared to the close relationship between the revision of the demolition regulations and people's livelihoods. On that day, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council published in full on its official website the "Regulations on Expropriation and Compensation for Houses on State-owned Land (Draft for Soliciting Opinions)" (hereinafter referred to as the draft for soliciting opinions), soliciting opinions from all sectors of society.
The new regulation aims to reconcile the interest disputes between demolishers and those being demolished, restoring dignity to the Property Law.
To focus on the nature of the new regulation, one must pay attention to the two basic issues of the new regulation, namely, the definition of public interest and the benchmark for market-price compensation.
The new regulation stipulates that there are seven situations defined as needs for public interest. If the first five can be勉强called public interests, the sixth is perplexing, "the need for construction of office buildings for state organs" is defined as public interest, does building small villas for government officials also belong to public interest? Furthermore, can all expansion and improvement-type constructions related to government and state-owned enterprises be defined as public interests? And the seventh is a patchy endorsement, "other needs for public interest prescribed by laws, administrative regulations, and the State Council", meaning that anything defined as public interest by local administrative regulations and the State Council regulations is public interest. In other words, what constitutes public interest, the defining power completely lies in the hands of government departments with regulation-making authority.
Compensating displaced persons at market prices is a significant progress, eliminating the vicious mutual combat of exorbitant demands and excessive cuts. Past experiences show that most people are not unwilling to be relocated, but dissatisfied with the compensation prices, behind the bloody tears of demolition lie cruel deprivation of interests.
Article 20 of the new regulation clearly states, "The amount of monetary compensation shall be determined according to factors such as the location, purpose, building structure, degree of newness and oldness, and floor area of the expropriated house, based on the real estate market appraisal price." The real estate market appraisal price of the expropriated house shall be determined by real estate price appraisal institutions with corresponding qualifications, in accordance with real estate appraisal norms and relevant regulations, but shall not be less than the market transaction price of similar real estate when the house expropriation decision takes effect.
The crux here is that real estate price appraisal institutions cannot be subordinate organizations that blindly obey local governments. These institutions lack independence as market entities. As a warning, the evaluation agencies during the large withdrawal of private capital in Shanxi coal mines were subordinate organizations that sold out their independence for the Shanxi market. They could completely ignore the market average price, either undervaluing assets to zero or overvaluing them to the sky.
To plug loopholes, the new regulation stipulates that real estate price appraisal institutions shall be determined by the expropriated person through voting, drawing lots, etc., and the appraisal price shall not be lower than the market transaction price of similar properties. However, past experiences repeatedly warn us not to overestimate the morality of institutions or underestimate the greed of the government as a market entity. Before ordinary people can obtain adequate judicial relief, the best way to suppress greed is through internal administrative punishment. We can emulate the scoring mechanism of the China Securities Regulatory Commission for securities firms, with the State Council scoring local governments, setting high scores in the real estate sector, and deducting points once violations occur, thereby affecting the approval of credit, infrastructure projects, etc., for local governments. This way, even if local governments were given ten times the courage, they would not dare to violate regulations lightly.
Finally, worthy of note is the deprivation of rights of "nail households". Article 13 of the new regulation stipulates that if more than 90% of the expropriated persons agree to carry out dilapidated housing renovation, the county-level or higher local people's government may make a house expropriation decision; if less than 90% of the expropriated persons agree, no house expropriation decision may be made. That is to say, in the future, house demolition will implement a majority decision-making system. If you belong to the 10% minority of "nail households," sorry, you will lose your rights and receive no protection under laws and regulations. In other words, if nail households constitute a small fraction within the 10%, then their claim to property rights is wrong and foolish. Even if dissatisfied with the compensation decision, one can apply for administrative reconsideration and file administrative lawsuits, but "the execution of the compensation decision shall not be stopped," and the court can enforce relocation. This tactic of minority服从majority grants the government the legal right to remove nail households.
III. Solving migrant workers' housing problems hinges on adapting measures to local conditions:
Currently, the "hidden urbanization" issue in the process of China's urbanization is becoming increasingly prominent. Rural labor often fails to achieve the corresponding change in farmer identity during the process of non-agriculturalization. In the long term, failing to address the settlement issue of farmers entering cities will hinder the substantial progress of China's urbanization. In reality, the importance and urgency of solving the current housing problems of migrant workers are also becoming increasingly evident and urgently need to be addressed.
The emergence of migrant workers is the inevitable result of urbanization, industrialization, and non-agriculturalization of labor. Ultimately, the housing problems of migrant workers need to be solved through urbanization development. It is necessary to start from the perspective of coordinated urban-rural development, provide necessary conditions for farmers to settle in cities, and allow farmers to share in the fruits of economic reform and development.
In line with the long-term process of China's urbanization, the relocation of farmers to towns is also a long-term process, and solving the housing problems of farmers relocating to towns ultimately requires a long period of time. Therefore, corresponding policy measures should be proposed according to the principle of starting from nearby and easy to far and difficult, that is, first improving the living conditions of migrant workers entering cities, secondly gradually incorporating migrant workers entering cities into the urban housing supply and security system in regions with appropriate conditions, and finally achieving the policy goal of settling migrant workers entering cities.
Solving the housing problems of migrant workers hinges on adapting measures to local conditions and solving problems categorically.
For construction enterprises and large labor-using enterprises in development zones, the housing problems of migrant workers can be solved through collective dormitories. The government should formulate relevant construction standards, strengthen planning, construction, and daily supervision, and ensure that the living standards of migrant workers meet the most basic standards.
For migrant workers who temporarily lack the ability to buy houses, solving housing problems should primarily rely on leasing. Urban villages and suburban villages in the urban-rural fringe are the main places for absorbing migrant workers. The government should strengthen the management of farmers' rental houses, addressing issues related to hygiene, supporting facilities, and safety. Moreover, it is necessary to provide rental housing information services to migrant workers, helping them conveniently and quickly lease the required housing.
For migrant workers with aspirations and certain capabilities to purchase houses, the absorption role of small and medium-sized cities and towns can be played, helping them gradually find employment and settle in towns. First, according to the requirements of the 2009 Central Economic Work Conference, solving the gradual employment and settlement of qualified agricultural transfer populations in towns should be regarded as an important task in advancing urbanization, relaxing household registration restrictions in small and medium-sized cities and towns. Second, in economically developed and suitable regions, gradually incorporate migrant workers entering cities into the urban housing supply and security system, enhancing their housing consumption capabilities. Third, explore the linkage mechanism of urban and rural housing resources, studying the feasibility of exchanging rural homesteads and housing for urban housing.