Housing cheats to be punished over false applications for low-cost flats
More than 300 Shenzhen families will be punished for falsifying documents and concealing assets when applying for government-subsidised flats for those on low incomes.
Many of the applicants had assets of more than 1 million yuan (HK$1.19 million), Xinhua reported. But the authorities did not list the fraudsters' assets or give further details of how they lied in their applications.
According to the city's rules, only families with total assets below 320,000 yuan are eligible to apply for government-subsidised flats.
It is the third time in two months that municipal housing authorities have issued penalty notices, following public anger over the unfair distribution of public resources. In March, the housing authority issued 45 penalty notices over false housing applications from people who were found to own expensive cars and lived in upmarket communities.
However, the housing cheats will only be fined 5,000 yuan and banned from reapplying for three years, according to existing rules which lawmakers have criticised for being too light to be a deterrent.
A new, stricter regulation that has been approved by the city authorities will come into effect after it is approved by the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress. It will disqualify fraudsters from applying for government-subsidised flats for life and fines will start at 100,000 yuan. The penalty will be doubled to 200,000 yuan for cheats who have obtained government-subsidised apartments before.
In addition, those who help applicants to falsify documents to conceal assets will be fined 30,000 yuan. Employers that issue forged documents for the applicants will have their names published on the housing authority's website and be fined 100,000 yuan.
In the past 10 months, there have been a series of scandals involving unqualified applicants applying for government-funded houses for people on low incomes, including cases where those who qualified for social welfare housing were found to already own luxury cars and houses.
The average housing price in Shenzhen exceeded 20,345 yuan per square metre last month, according to property website Soufun.com, but the first batch of government-funded flats for those on low incomes, offered in 2008, were priced at between 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per square metre, local media reported.
A total of 10,000 government-subsidised flats are due to be completed in Shenzhen this year as part of plans to build 240,000 in the next five years.
Concealed assets
Many applicants seeking flats subsidised by the government had assets, in yuan, of more than: 1m yuan
