Homeowners may face large fees after expiration
Top-level regulations are needed to deal with the issue of land use after owners' fixed-term rights expire, experts said on Sunday, following a media report that some homeowners have been affected after their 20-year land use rights expired in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province.
Some homeowners will have to pay land transfer fees of up to "hundreds of thousands" of yuan to maintain their rights, domestic news portal caixin.com reported on Saturday. The report stirred wide-ranging discussion over the issue.
Wenzhou's bureau of land resources disputed that claim, saying said there has been a misunderstanding of the situation, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. The bureau did say, however, that the city is facing the problem of the expiration of rights granted for 20 years, said Xinhua.
There are no specific laws to guide local bureaus when dealing with the problem, the report from Xinhua noted.
"Indeed, there are no specific laws and regulations currently to clarify the problem of how to deal with a property after its land use rights expire," Li Jian, a senior partner with Beijing Jingyao Law Firm, told the Global Times on Sunday.
The maximum term for the use of land in China is 70 years for housing. The Property Law says that the usage rights for housing will be renewed automatically if they expire.
It's necessary to sign a new contract for land use and pay the fees when the rights are extended, according to the Urban Real Estate Administration Law of China.
However, the law doesn't specify how automatic renewals actually work or how much is to be paid, said Li, noting that local governments still need to await further detailed regulations from the central government.
"There's no need for Chinese homeowners to worry now about what will happen when the land use rights expire in 70 years," Li noted. "It will take time for the authorities to establish and confirm related regulations."
Wenzhou isn't the first city to encounter this problem. In recent years, Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, and Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province have had a similar situation.
"More cases like this will occur, which means guidelines from the central government are needed," Liu Yuan, research director at Centaline Group in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Sunday. "Also, the solution needs to be based on the different situations of the local governments."
