CLOSE QUARTERS

CLOSE QUARTERS

WOULD YOU WANT THE GOVERNMENT AS A HOUSEMATE?

Buying an apartment in China is tough. Prices in firsttier cities keep skyrocketing but demand never seems to fall. Instead, potential buyers just get more anxious about missing out.

Chinese authorities fear a market crash, but would also like to avoid having prices spiral entirely out of reach for the middle class. A raft of measures have been tried, from pushing investment in less developed cities to tinkering with the hukou (household registration) system.

The latest effort is pretty blunt in comparison: Beijing’s municipal government has mooted a plan that would allow it to become a co-investor in properties so house buyers can afford to stop renting and put down a deposit.

Dubbed a “joint property ownership scheme,” the scheme would make the government a minority stakeholder in each apartment. Participants would face certain restrictions when selling, with only limited participation opportunities. The plan comes as Guangzhou and Beijing have made moves to allow renters the same education rights as homeowners. Previously, only registered property owners could enrol their children in local district schools. This resulted in tiny plots of land near popular schools going for astronomical sums of money to parents eager to ensure eligibility—one uninhabitable passageway was listed last year for 1.5 million RMB (227,000 USD), the price so high because its owners would be eligible to send their children to the prestigious Beijing First Experimental Primary School nearby.

The rights of landholders versus renters raises the question of what “ownership” under the Chinese system means when the only purchase option available is a longterm lease of the land rights, generally for around 70 years. Some provinces indicated that extensions are available, but require new land-use contracts and associated transfer fees.

As yet, it’s still an issue for legal experts and landowners to speculate over; for all its current necessity to both the economy and marriage market, China’s property ladder is only a few decades old, and the magic seven-decade milestone is still some way off. – D.D.suggestive hokum, dabble in both. Take Guangzhou-based DaAn Gene: The company shot into the spotlight after Ran Yingying, a former television presenter and wife of flyweight boxing champion Zou Shiming, posted her son’s genetic test results on Weibo. Among the results of the test—which cost 6,500 RMB—were details of his likely aptitude for music and interpersonal skills.

DaAn Gene, however, isn’t some non-credentialed fly-bynight company; it is affiliated with Sun Yat-sen University and for many years specialized in genetic research. DaAn Gene’s forays into selling test results to the public are a recent one, matching a public demand for a (scientifically dubious) knowledge of the future. In explaining its rationale, DaAn Gene has told media that it has a responsibility to help the public understand genetic testing, from a “simpler” angle.

Part of the reason why companies can make such unfounded claims is lack of regulation. Genetic tests are restricted in terms of clinical applications, so companies need to be careful about the medical implications of their findings, but outside of that caveat, almost anything goes. Including, currently, the modern equivalent of having your palm read.– DAVID DAWSON