Homes at risk

Two villagers in Daxingzhuang village, Songzhuang township, suburb of Beijing, rummage through the debris of demolished properties on Wednesday. Photos: Liang Chen/GT

Ma Hongwei, a painter who lives in the "artist's village" of Xiaopu in the suburbs of Beijing, has been stressed of late.

In October last year, she spent 500,000 yuan ($82,350) to rent 70 square meters of land for 30 years from the local village committee to build her workshop.

But she fears her house might be pulled down, after Beijing launched a campaign against houses "with limited property rights."

This term refers to houses built on communally owned rural lands without official permission. Local villagers often sell land in order to raise money, but such homes lack government authorization or ownership certificates. With housing prices skyrocketing in the city, suburbanites have been buying up village land for new homes. But these properties aren't protected by the law.

The Beijing authorities launched a massive campaign to "rectify" such houses in March. A total of 18,000 homes have been demolished, covering an area of 10.44 million square meters, the Beijing Daily reported.

Ma isn't the only artist suffering in Xiaopu. On December 6, local authorities dispatched a group of demolition crews to pull down a 15,000-sqaure-meter building complex under construction. The complex, designed as a cultural and creative center, would include workshops, galleries, hotels and apartments. The majority of the buyers are artists.

The demolition was blocked by local villagers and artists. Hundreds of angry villagers, along with artists, took to the streets and protested against the demolition.

The case has become a sensation after the news was widely spread via Weibo. Some Net users called on the authorities to protect the rights of artists while others argued the central and local governments should come up with specific measures to solve the problem of houses built on communal land.

As of press time, the demolitions in village had been paused.

Yang, a publicity official from township of Songzhuang that administers Xiaopu, told the Global Times that the government would continue cleaning up houses with limited property rights "according to the laws and regulations."

"Without the authorization of the Tongzhou district government, the village committee in Xiaopu constructed the building of their own will, which is illegal," Yang told the Global Times.

"Also, the complex has no project planning and construction permits, and none of the contracts went through public bidding, which is also illegal."

Negative effects

The pending demolition has left local communities fearful.

Ma's worries are widely spread among over 5,000 artists who reside in Xiaopu.

"I am worried about where I'll live if my house in Xiaopu is demolished. We all signed contracts with villagers and the village committee as well, but we have no house certificate. It's only a matter of time till our houses are pulled down, if the clean-up continues. Who can protect our rights?" Luotuo, a painter who has lived in Xiaopu for over five years, told the Global Times.

Ma said that several of her painter friends have moved out from Songzhuang, out of fear of the unpredictable future.

Local villagers also worried the campaign would eventually drive away artistis and cripple the local economy as a result.

After Xiaopu became a popular spot for artists in the 1990s, creators swarmed into the village, considerably boosting local revenues. A number of local art-related industries also sprung up.

"We're in a great dilemma. Our village committee has invested hundreds of thousands of yuan in the complex, but now, the upper-level government said the building is illegal and should be demolished. Who will compensate for the loss?" Li Xuelai, told the Global Times.

When asked why they didn't wait for official permission to develop the land, Li answered vaguely, "the local government has offered us some preferential policies, and we enjoyed them."

But Yang responded, "despite the preferential policies, the transferring of the use of land should go through the strict procedure and be authorized by the government."

Arbitrary change

In China, urban land is owned by the State while rural land is under collective ownership, supposedly for different uses.

The use of national land is strictly controlled, and change of use should be approved by the land and resources departments and planning bureaus at the upper-level government.

Even though houses built in urban areas are alienable property, it remains illegal to sell houses built on rural land to outsiders. But with villagers increasingly abandoning their hometowns as migrants, and many areas swallowed up by urban growth, experts say that the lack of property rights disempowers rural Chinese.

Despite their illegitimacy, sales of "houses with limited property rights" went rampant and the prices of such houses have shot up over the past couple of weeks, after rumors that an ambiguously worded notice issued as part of the Party's Third Plenum meant that homeowners would be given full rights. The craze stopped after the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued an emergency notice, urging "local authorities to stop the ongoing trade and construction of the small property housing," followed by a nationwide campaign.

"The central and local authorities are attempting to clean up houses with limited property rights. If so, buyers of these houses would suffer great economic loss," Song Hongyuan, director of Research Center for Rural Economy at Ministry of Agriculture, told the Global Times.

The central government has also urged local bureaus to demolish houses with limited property rights suspected of illegal planning and illegal transferring of the use of land, according to the China Business Journal.

As well as Beijing, Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province and Shangqiu in Henan Province have begun to demolish homes.

"These properties take up a lot of farmland. The central government imposes a harsh penalty on the illegal construction of such housing, and buyers should be on alert when purchasing these houses," Song, told the Global Times.