Beiwu follow-up 2: replacement housing

konjaku: it seems the Beiwu villagers’ right to control their real estate is to some extent subject to district-wide initiatives. As of 2011, the villagers are settled into their new residences (Beiwu Jiayuan). Many, if not most, are living in one unit, and renting out the other unit they received as compensation. Although no longer the “tile economy,” the situation for the villagers has not fundamentally changed. Their principal source of income is still from renting. Instead of renting out crudely constructed one room units built in their household compounds to migrant workers, they are renting their vacant apartments in a residential project to workers of a better class, “industrial workers.” Probably they would prefer the highest rent the market allows, but the district government prefers to “stabilize” their rents and pay them a subsidy if necessary.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/2011-01/05/c_12946794.htm

Beiwu village replacement residences –300 units change into public rental housing

2011-01-05

Within the development project of replacement housing for peasants(Beiwu Jiayuan),  unoccupied units will be rented out by the government, to help it reach its goal to provide more rental housing in Haidian district.

Yesterday. the Haidian district residential building committee indicated that the initial steps in the Beiwu pilot project to move people into replacement housing had been taken. Today and tomorrow, the government concluded an agreement to rent out the 300 left over residential units, at 2600 to 2700 yuan a month.

The Haidian district this year has changed its policy from “selling housing as the main objective” to “both renting and selling, but with renting as the main objective” in order to raise the proportion of rental housing. This year Haidian district has plans to start up construction on 2 million square meters, and to finish 600,000 square meters of projects.

“But the first priority is to make sure replacement housing is available for the displaced peasants.” A Haidian district Building Commission official said,  because most of the residential building projects built this year in Haidian have gone to displaced peasants, there is a shortage of rental units.Therefore they have started a pilot project to use unoccupied replacement housing for rentals. After the peasants have their needs fulfilled, the left over units are usually rented to individuals. This year, Haidian district will use the government rental noticeboard internet platform to offer the the left over units for rent as [subsidized] public housing, targeted to workers employed at high tech companies located within Haidian district.

A Haidian distict Residential Building commission official said, the pilot project aim is to stabilize rental income for the peasants, and also to provide housing at reasonable rates for migrant industrial workers. Last year 10th month, Daxing district started the same type of pilot project.

The  Haidian district Residential Building commission official said, their investigation has shown that their current problem is a lack of rentals in the district. Because public housing rents are lower than markets priced housing, this means the villagers who have financial control of the replacement housing units might suffer a loss in income. To prevent this, the Haidian district government is putting up its own funds to create a subsidy.

An official at the Beiwu Jiayuan [Beiwu village replacement housing  residential development project] said that taking a 60 square meter residential unit as an example, this would lease at 2600 yuan a month for 3 years, and 2700 yuan for 5 years. The rent would be collected and paid once every half year to the villagers. The rent amount would not be allowed to float during this time period.

It has been reported that there are 1680 replacement housing residential units in Beiwu Jiayuan. There were 775 housing compounds in Beiwu village. This means each family received two or more residential units, one to live in, and one to rent out. Yesterday, the Beiwu village party branch secretary Zhang Quan stated that in the two months since the relocation, some villagers had already rented out their unneeded units to individuals.

The rental website latest data shows that units in Beiwu Jiayuan currently go for between 2400 and 3000 yuan. Reporter , Fu Shasha.

Beiwu Jiayuan photos: