Shenzhen has decided to call a halt to new business apartment projects citywide and will increase land supply for residential use, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Saturday.
Different from commercial residential housing, business apartments were originally designed to accommodate traveling businesspeople for short-term stay. However, many people turned to such apartments after they had reached purchase limits and were no longer unqualified for purchasing an additional home, fuelling speculation in the housing market.
The new policy became effective Friday, said a joint notice issued by the city’s planning and natural resources bureau and the housing and construction bureau.
Under the new policy, the planning and approval of new business apartment projects will be suspended across the city, including Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone.
Projects that have been approved by the city’s planning authorities can continue to go through the subsequent procedures according to the original provisions. Those projects that have been approved for planning but have not been completed are encouraged to be turned into sellable affordable housing for talented workers, according to the policy.
According to the city’s urban planning standards and guidelines, business apartments are built on land zoned for commercial use and provide short-term business and residential services for businesspeople without such supporting facilities as schools and kindergartens. Such apartments usually come with 40-50 years of land use rights, as compared to 70 years for ordinary housing. In most cases such apartments do not have access to gas and accupants have to pay for their electricity and water according to higher rates for business use.
In recent years, business apartments have shown a tendency to be used as residential housing, which has deviated from the purposes of “serving businesspeople” and “providing short-term accommodation,” said sources with the city’s housing authorities. Many such projects were aimed at circumvating the home purchase restrictions.
Shenzhen will also continue to increase the supply of land for residential use to meet citizens’ housing demand, according to the notice.
The city plans to allocate 293.2 hectares of land for the building of residential housing this year, accounting for about 25 percent of the total supply of land used for building in 2020 and nearly double the planned 150 hectares last year.
In addition, the supply of land for public housing and commercial housing has increased significantly compared to last year.