BEIJING, May 25 -- Owing a two-story house would
have been impossible for hog raiser Wang Quan without a new policy in
Dujiangyan, one of the cities hardest hit by last year's Sichuan earthquake.
Wang's house in Chaping village became too dangerous
to live in after the 8-magnitude quake on May 12.
"I wouldn't be able to afford to build such a house
in 10 years, but now, without paying anything, I'm living in a villa," Wang
says.
When he learned from the village committee in June
that the Chengdu municipal government had issued a policy to encourage people
from the city to jointly build homes with quake-hit farmers, Wang immediately
thought of Zhang Zhonggui.
Zhang, a client of his hog business, had said that he
wanted to build a house on Wang's rural housing land in the picturesque Mt
Qingcheng area, but the law prohibited him from doing so. Now with the new
policy, there is a chance, Wang says.
Under China's current land ownership structure, urban
land is owned by the state while rural land is owned by the rural collective.
The collective, often a village committee, distributes land-use rights to
households. Rural land includes farmland and construction land for housing,
enterprises and public structures.
Farmers are allowed to transfer their rural housing
land use rights to other members within the rural collective.
"The (new) policy is basically saying that I give up
some of my rural housing land to investors who in return will build a new home
for me," said Wang. So he contacted Zhang, who agreed to invest 500,000 yuan
(US$75,000) right away to build two two-story villas on Wang's 232 square meters
of land.
Wang moved into his new house with his wife, daughter
and uncle in October. It has a floor area of 132 square meters, with 242 square
meters of building area. The house cost Zhang 280,000 yuan.
The rest of Wang's land, or 100 square meters, was
given over to Zhang's new country guesthouse that has 170 square meters of
building area. Zhang plans to receive tourists visiting Mt Qingcheng.
A complicated
matter
But the legal basis of the policy is more complicated
than Wang's initial understanding.
Under China's Land Administration Law, rural
collective land use rights cannot be sold, transferred or leased for non-rural
use.
"This means that the law does not forbid the transfer
of rural collective construction land use right for tourism," says Luo Zhaopeng,
director of Dujiangyan's Urban and Rural Planning Department.
Since rural housing land use rights can only be
transferred within the village collective, the village collective must
redesignate the part of the rural housing land agreed by farmers and investors
as rural collective construction land, making it transferable for investors, Luo
says. Individual investors or companies can use the land to run service
businesses such as guesthouses or restaurants.
"Through this process, rural housing land becomes
part of collective construction land that can be transferred legally," says Wu
Jianling, of Chengdu University's Urban and Rural Development Center.
Both Zhang and Wang got two certificates: property
ownership certificates and land use right certificates.
For Zhang, it is the collective rural construction
land use right valid for 40 years. With the two certificates, Zhang will be able
to sell his property on the market. But Wang cannot sell his because his
certificate is rural housing land use right, which cannot be sold on the market.
"I feel that I've benefited a lot. I got a two-story
villa without paying anything," Wang says. "I don't want to sell my house and
move to the city, the air here on the mountain is so much better."
Han Jun, director of the State Council Development
Research Center's Rural Economy Department, says such practices are unsuitable
for other rural areas.
Han, who has just returned from doing research on
countryside policies in Japan, says the restriction on rural land use is even
tighter in Japan. "Japanese farmers are not allowed to sell their rural homes to
city people and there is no way urban people can build houses on rural housing
land."
Han thinks such practices might trigger disputes in
the future, but "since we are dealing with the quake zones, the situation is
different."
Luo Zhaopeng says land use rights should be freely
transferred as long as the use of the land is not changed. "We shouldn't worry
too much that once the farmers sell their rural housing land or farmland, they
will have no place to live or nothing to eat," he says.
"Instead we should give them enough freedom and let
them decide what to do with their land. The key point is to improve the social
security system for the farmers."
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
Special Report: 1st Anniversary of Wenchuan Earthquake
