Strange Chinese Real Estate Rules
- A new rule from Beijing states that apartments built from June ’06 onwards can’t all be too big. Only 30% of apartments is allowed to be bigger than 90 sq m.
In wonderful Chinese style no one actually knows what this proportion applies to… whether to the city (how to measure / allot quota?) or to individual construction projects (how to define a single project?).
A glance at upcoming residential building projects in Shenzhen demonstrates that the rule is probably nothing more than rhetoric. Shenzhen will basically follow its own rules as usual.
Another example of SZ being a law unto itself is in stamp duty for new houses – last year’s increase China-wide was supposed to be for everything above 120 sq m, but in Shenzhen it is only for apartments over 144 sq m.
Shenzhen isn’t really called a Special Economic Zone any more, but how about “Shenzhen Special Autonomous Money-Making Region”?
There is also going to be a new business tax on second-hand apartment sellers (?to be borne by the buyers I guess), starting on 14th June 2006. In this week before the rule takes effect, over 3500 transactions have been completed. Perhaps people can see this is one rule Shenzhen can’t ignore.
