New | Proposal to let farmers in China sell off housing land given cool reception
Official suggests that loosening the rules on home sales will help fund development in poorer rural areas
A government official’s suggestion that farmers in China should be allowed to sell land allocated to them for housing has been given a lukewarm reception by analysts and experts on rural affairs.
Zhao Hui, the director of the village and township construction department under the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a conference on urbanisation the move would allow more private capital to help fund the development of rural areas.
Farmers are given plots for housing that are controlled collectively by villages. Most are forbidden to sell it.
Zhao said that if plots of housing land were sold, roughly a fifth of the cash could go to the farmer and rest shared between the government and the village.
Development in urban area and cities has largely been funded by land sales to the private sector, according to Zhao, but rural development has lagged behind because it relies on government funding.
“No matter how hard the central government tries to allocate funds, it will be dwarfed by funds from private capital,” Zhao said.
