Housing Vacancies: An Unsolved Riddle?

By Tang Xiangyang
Published: 2010-09-03

Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has stated that the NBS is researching ways to investigate the problem of empty housing. Some cities, including Beijing, have already been selected to conduct a survey about the situation.

At a press conference held by the NBS, Ma Jiantang stated: “It is almost impossible to determine what kind of situation qualifies as vacant housing. For example, is a vacant home one that nobody lives in, or one that has been empty for over half a year? It is not only a question of where; it is also a question of time, and thus difficult to come up with a standard.”

Despite these difficulties, Ma said, the NBS would take advantage of China’s sixth population census and cooperate with other ministries to obtain statistics about empty housing.

According to reports, during the census, for which preparations are already underway, 10 percent of those surveyed will be required to fill in a “long form” with 28 items, many concerning housing. There will be questions about the number of rooms, area, facilities, structure, year of construction completion and ownership details of the property.

Meanwhile, Yu Xiuqin, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Bureau of Statistics confirmed yesterday that Beijing was one of the cities selected to conduct a survey on vacant housing. Currently, representative communities are being selected.

Yu said that they would require those interviewed to fill in six forms, exposing information about their properties, family and the amount of their electricity, water and natural gas usage.

While addressing concern as to whether this survey will provide accurate statistics about vacant housing in Beijing, Yu said, this was only a “selective survey”, covering a small portion of vacant housing, rather than a “sample survey” and thus it cannot calculate the total number of the empty houses in Beijing.

With a continual rise in housing prices, the public has long demanded that the NBS provide reliable statistics about housing vacancy rates in China, but the NBS used to refused, claiming it was “impossible” to do so.

Housing vacancy statistics are not the only property statistics that have sparked heated debate in China.

In 2009 when housing prices witnessed massive gains across the country, statistics released by the NBS stated prices increased by only 1.5 percent, casting doubt on the reliability of the government agency.

Since China started reforming its housing system in 1998, no statistics have been gathered on the number of houses, their size, the average number of houses owned by an urban family, etc. The lack of reliable information has been considered as one the causes of inflation in housing prices.

According to statistics released by the Beijing Property Trading Management Network, the average housing price in Beijing has increased to 21,008 yuan per square meter in August, a 10.6 percent increase from the July levels.

For now, the mystery of housing vacancy rates remains unsolved.

This article was edited by Rose Scobie and Ruoji Tang

Source
The Beijing News

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