Feb 2, 2012
Translated by Zhu Na

Beijing has issued regulations that will ban the re-sale of some kinds of government subsidized housing.

According to the new rules, residents who have newly-purchased affordable housing (经济适用房) apartments will be prevented from re-selling these apartments.

This is the first time that the Chinese capital has introduced such a rule.

The new regulations state that if the owners of affordable housing units wish to sell their apartments, they can only sell them back to the government.

According to a document published by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (BMCHUD), preference in the distribution of both affordable housing and low-cost housing (限价房) will be given to households made up of two or more people and to residents over a certain age. The document also states that young singles will be encouraged to apply for public rental housing (公租房).

The Beijing city government says that it plans to greatly exapnd the development of public rental housing and subsidized rental units.

Most of the apartments being built as part of the public rental housing push will have a floor space of about 40 square meters, the floorspace for individual affordable housing apartments will also be strictly monitored so that they are kept below the government's limit of 60 square meters.

In order to deal with the gap between the price of government-backed budget apartments and commercial housing, the commission also says that it will improve the system for setting prices for and constructing low-cost housing.

In the allocation and management of subsidized housing, the city will also establish a unified information management system that will make it easier for officials to check on the property holdings and economic background of those who apply for subsidized housing.
 
The city will also investigate and punish individuals who are found to have leased, lent or left vacant their subsidized housing unit in violation of regulations.

The government also warned that those who try to game the system will be exposed to the media.

This is the first time that Beijing has made it clear that subsidized housing can not be re-sold.

Beijing is one of the few cities to have introduced such a policy and it follows the release of similar regulations in Shenzhen last year.

Links and Sources
Beijing Times: 北京新购经适房禁止上市出售 规定由政府回购