The expiration of land use rights a quite serious issue in China which will have implications for almost everyone. Earlier this month, the local government in Wenzhou, in east China's Zhejiang province, billed some residents one-third of the value of their houses to extend their 'land use rights'. The authority claimed the residents' existing rights to the properties were close to expiring.
Save money for a long time, just for a house you can call home. But when your "land use rights" expire, do you still own your home? In Wenzhou, this is something which Ms Wang isn't quite sure of.
"I can't sell the apartment now. They say my Land Use Certificate has expired," Ms. wang said.
Ms Wang bought her house in Octorber, 2012. Earlier this year, she intended to sell it in order to purchase a bigger one. Unexpectedly, she found her land use rights over the house has expired on March 4th.
"I never noticed this problem before. I think normally, there is a 70-year right to use the land," Ms. wang said.
According to the Property Law of the People's Republic of China, land use rights "automatically renew" after expiration. This has generally been accepted as the government may not claim the land, and the house owners can continue to own and use their property. But, this is not the case for Ms Wang.
"There is no policy about exactly how much you need to pay to renew the land use right. If you want to sell your house after expiration, you need to pay a certain amount of money based on the value of your house," Tao Jiawu, deputy director of Lucheng Branch Office of Wenzhou Land & Resources Bureau, said.
The local government claims Ms Wang should have noticed the problem a year ago. If that was the case, only 40 percent of the house's value would have been required for further process. But now, she has to pay 100 percent.
"In order to sell the house, I need to renew the land use right. So I need to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan. This is almost as much money as when I purchased the house in the first place," Ms. wang said.
And here's another interesting element to all of this. Back in the early nineties, the Wenzhou local government classified the property rights from 20-year to 70-year in order to stimulate real estate development. According to data, in 2019, there will be 17-hundred houses facing the issue of land use rights expiration.
"We are doing some research on it. We will organize more meetings to discuss it. Our policies can only function within the frame of law," Zhang Shaoqing, director of Department of Land Use And Managemnet of Wenzhou Land & Resources Bureau, said.
Earlier this month, a special group went to Wenzhou to investigate and research the issue.
Having your own property, one of the most important and fundamental aspects of nearly everybody's life.
