Beijing proposes ‘joint property ownership’ scheme to help cool prices and allow more onto the property ladder
Capital city’s government scheme inspired by others including the UK’s ‘shared-ownership’ or ‘help-to-buy’ schemes, with 50,000 units planned to be offered yearly
Beijing municipal government, desperate to tame skyrocketing home prices, is planning a new “joint-property ownership” scheme to allow more affordable homes to be offered to buyers – a move which some are warning could threaten the value of low-end private homes.
The so-called “jointly-owned homes”, promise to be China’s equivalent of what the UK market for instance calls “shared-ownership” or “help-to-buy” properties, which allow residents to own portions, along with the government, essentially giving buyers the chance to get on the property ladder when they previously couldn’t afford to.
A self-occupied home wholly owned by individuals will not have to pay a share of the rent with the government if they put the property up for lease, but they do have to pay 30 per cent of capital gains tax if they resell the property.
Plans for the new jointly-owned property scheme have now gone out to public consultation from the city’s Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
Specific shares will be worked out on an individual property-to-property basis, and be restricted to those who do not own an existing property. Once invested, a shared property cannot be sold within five years, single buyers will have to at least 30-years-old, married couples are not subject to that age restriction, and shares will be allocated by lottery.