Glamor Economics

Chapter 160

Chapter 20 Section 5 Can Home Ownership Be Realized——Indemnificatory Housing

Today's housing prices in our country are so high that they exceed the purchasing power of ordinary people.An internationally used indicator for housing prices and the purchasing power of ordinary people is the housing price-to-income ratio. According to general international standards, a housing price-to-income ratio of 3 to 6 is considered relatively normal.According to calculations based on relevant data from the 2008 China Statistical Yearbook, the average housing price-to-income ratio in my country was 2007 in 15, much higher than the normal level generally believed by the international community.

As more and more people cannot afford housing, the vacancy rate of commercial housing is also rising.According to survey data, the stock of new houses in 70 large and medium-sized cities in my country at the end of 2008 was 1.37 million square meters, which is very large compared to normal years. From January to November 2008, the national housing sales decreased by 1% compared with the same period of the previous year, and the floor area of ​​housing sold decreased by 11%.Because housing prices are too high, most people can't afford them. Relying on a little tax reduction and subsidies from the government is tantamount to a drop in the bucket and can't solve the problem at all.

Housing is a basic need of life, and the issue of housing is a topic of common concern to ordinary people in our country.However, for most low- and middle-income groups, buying commercial housing provided by developers has become a major burden in life, and housing prices are rising steadily. It is a dream to buy a house in a big city, and many people even become "House slaves".

As a commodity, commercial housing cannot take security as its main function.Indemnificatory housing was created to make up for this defect. It covers the gap in the commercial housing market, that is, it provides various housing guarantees for low-income and poor families who cannot afford commercial housing, and belongs to the government's public welfare.Indemnificatory housing includes housing with limited standards, fixed prices or rents provided by the government for low- and middle-income families with housing difficulties. It consists of low-rent housing, affordable housing and policy-based rental housing.

First, let's take a look at affordable housing.Affordable and affordable housing is a commercial housing with social security features for low- and middle-income families, and has the characteristics of economy and applicability.Economy means that the housing price is lower than the market price of commercial housing, which is suitable for the affordability of middle and low-income families; applicability means that the use effect of housing is emphasized in housing design and construction standards.Its low price is achieved through land allocation and supply, exemption from relevant taxes and fees, and regulations on the developer's profit ceiling.The implementation of the affordable housing policy has played a significant role in stimulating domestic demand, stabilizing housing prices, and improving the housing supply system, and is generally welcomed by low- and middle-income earners.

However, some problems have also been exposed at the current stage of affordable housing, such as the scale of affordable housing is too large, the target of sales is not clearly defined, the limitations of location selection, and the area of ​​affordable housing is too large and the standards are too high, which makes the policy of affordable housing unreliable. It did not really benefit the low- and middle-income groups, and at the same time increased the burden on the government.

In addition, in order to establish and improve a multi-level housing supply system and solve the housing problems of the lowest-income families in cities and towns, the Ministry of Construction promulgated the "Administrative Measures for Urban Low-Rent Housing" on April 1999, 4 and the Urban Low-Rent Housing Management Measures on November 22, 2003. The "Urban Minimum Income Housing Management Measures" was promulgated to provide low-rent low-rent housing for the lowest-income groups.Low-rent housing has a relatively good overall situation in the implementation process due to its relatively small scope of protection.

But low-rent housing also has some problems, the most important one is that the scope of low-rent housing is too narrow.Regarding the applicable objects of low-rent housing, it is currently limited to "lowest-income families with non-agricultural long-term residence permits and other special families that need protection."From a practical point of view, there are three types of groups that are not included in the applicable objects of the low-rent housing policy: families whose income is below the average income level and above the minimum income level, migrant workers who go to work in cities, single-parent families, and the growing number of elderly people empty nest family.These groups can neither afford commercial housing nor meet the application criteria for low-rent housing, and are called the "sandwich class."

Policy-based rental housing is a measure taken by the government to solve the housing problem of this kind of sandwich population.Policy-based rental housing is mainly carried out through government investment in the construction of new houses.The rent of policy rental housing is calculated according to the cost of the house, which is usually the cost price plus an appropriate management fee, which is the cost rent price.

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Indemnificatory housing projects mainly refer to low-rent housing in cities and affordable housing in cities, and also include renovation of shantytowns (dilapidated houses) for workers in some forest areas, reclamation areas, and coal mines, and settlement projects for nomads.

Poverty-relief housing refers to the housing specially built by local governments at all levels to solve the housing problems of especially difficult households, difficult households and overcrowded households among local urban residents.

(End of this chapter)