SUN
WUKONG Wen
hangs tough on home sweet
home By Wu Zhong
HONG
KONG - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has expressed
unequivocally his resolve to bring skyrocketing
housing prices down to a "reasonable level" in the
remainder of his term in office.
"In my
view, reasonable housing prices should be in
keeping with people's incomes, in keeping with
reasonable returns of investments (in housing).
Now I can unequivocally tell everyone: housing
prices are still far above reasonable level," Wen
said at a
press conference in Beijing
on Mar 14 after the closing of the annual session
of the National People's Congress (NPC).
Wen is expected to resign his party post
later this year at the 18th party congress and his
premiership in March 2013. The press conference
was the last of its kind for Wen as Chinese
premier.
"China is a big country with more
than 1.3 billion people, which is on the way to
achieve industrialization and urbanization. I
believe people should have a place to live, but
not necessarily their own apartments. The
government will encourage people to rent houses,"
he added.
Following the premier's
toughly-worded pledge to continue the crackdown on
housing prices, the Shanghai Composite Index
closed 2.6% lower that day, the biggest decline
since Nov 30, 2011, and shed another 0.73% the
following day. Analysts say Beijing's continuing
crackdown would not only affect the profitability
of property developers, but also slow down demands
for construction materials, bank loans and even
transportation.
But housing is by no means
just an economic issue. It affects other aspects
of society as well. Chinese sociologists believe
the government's curb on housing prices has a far
reaching impact on people's daily life too. For
example, housing could be an important factor
affecting decisions on marriage and divorce.
In last couple of years when housing
prices kept going up, many young people in love
have dared not to get married in fear they could
not afford to own a home or even rent one. Fewer
marriages contribute to a higher divorce rate [1].
Thanks to Deng Xiaoping's economic reform
and opening up policy, China's economy has
achieved miraculous growth in past 30-plus years
to become the world second-largest today. But
reform and opening up has also brought about
fundamental changes to other aspects of Chinese
society. Many traditional Chinese values and norms
are challenged or even thrown away. For example,
divorce used to be considered evil but now is
commonplace.
According to China's Ministry
of Civil Affairs, in 1980 - shortly after the
start of reform and opening up, the number of
divorce cases across the country was 341,000. But
the figure rose to 800,000 in 1990, 1.21 million
in 2000, 1.96 million in 2010. Last year the
number exceeded 2 million - or, on average, about
5,500 families dissolved each day.
Needless to say, almost all divorce cases
are found in cities, as rural people still remain
quite conservative in this regard. And statistics
show, the more open a city is the higher the
divorce rate there. In 2010, the divorce rate was
39% in Beijing, 38% in Shanghai, 36.3% in
Shenzhen, 35% in Guangzhou and 34.9% in Xiamen. By
comparison, divorce in Hong Kong in that year was
a lower 33.8%.
Interestingly, however, it
is noticed that the increase of divorces in
Beijing seems to have slowed down in 2011.
According to Beijing municipal civil affairs
authority, 32,999 couples got divorced last year,
just slightly up 1.2% from the previous year. The
growth rate was the lowest in seven years.
Reporters of the Beijing-based Legal Daily also
found that divorce lawsuits in several Beijing
courts dropped in 2011. For instance, cases deal
with by Haidian District Court dropped by 12%.
Beijing civil affairs authority attributed the
slowdown mainly to its increased mediation efforts
before granting permission for divorce.
But some Beijing lawyers specializing in
marriage and divorce see the fluctuation of
housing prices as a factor affecting people's
decision on divorce as well as marriage, according
the Legal Daily. [2]
When prices rose in
the past couple of years, some separated couples
put off their divorce. They did not want to sell
their jointly-owned homes as it was expected they
could fetch more later. Nor was one party willing
to sell his or her half to the other - for the
same reason. Hence inflating housing prices
contributed to sustaining marriages without love.
But since last year when housing prices
began to show a sign of downturn, this was seen as
another reason for separated couples to put off
their divorce too, because, for one thing, they
don't want to sell their homes at lower prices.
And it also becomes hard to sell their homes
anyway, due to Beijing's tough restrictions on
buying and selling housing. Yang Xiaolin, a
solicitor in Beijing, maintains that this has
partially contributed to the slowdown of growth in
divorce last year in Beijing, according to the
Legal Daily.
Yang cited a divorce case he
had handled: After several court hearings, the
couple had finally reached an agreement in May,
2011 on division of their common property. The
wife would keep the apartment they jointly owned
but would pay the husband half of the market price
of the apartment. But one month later, housing
prices began another round of decline, the husband
went to the court asking to revoke their divorce
ruling because their home had became worth less.
The wife also agreed to put off the divorce as she
was not willing to pay more for the apartment.
Needless to say, there are more
fundamental factors than housing for a married
couple seeking a divorce. But ironically,
fluctuation of housing prices seems to have forced
some heart-broken couples to reluctantly sustain
marriage without love.
From this
perspective, a stable property market is important
for social stability. As Wen pledged, the major
task of the Chinese government right now is to
bring housing prices down to a "reasonable level".
After this goal is attained, how to keep housing
prices stable at this "reasonable level" will
become another big challenge to the government.
Note: 1. In China, the divorce
rate is defined as the total number of divorces
that occur in a given time period divided by the
number of marriages. 2. Click here
for the Chinese text.
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