Lin Min

linmin67@hotmail.com

IN a major policy boost for Shenzhen, the Central Government said it would delegate powers to the city to launch land reform, as the city battles to increase housing supply and tame the red-hot housing market.

In a report by China Central Television yesterday, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced nine measures that include giving Shenzhen the power to tweak existing land and planning regulations to increase land supplies for housing construction.

The document says the ministry supports Guangdong to delegate its power to Shenzhen in approving agricultural land, except basic crop fields, to be used for housing and industrial construction. The ministry will also allow Shenzhen to exclude construction within parks and greenery areas in highly urbanized regions from the quota of urban construction land. Analysts say these measures would unleash more land supplies for the construction of housing.

With an area of 1,997 sqkm (not including Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone), Shenzhen is short of available land for new housing and industrial developments, one of the major factors that have driven the spectacular housing price growth for more than a decade.

According to the document, Shenzhen will explore the roadmap of implementing the renewal of land use rights after they expire.

The measures also authorize Guangdong to take reform measures concerning the planning and zoning of land to support the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The province will enjoy greater power to optimize the proportions, distribution and priorities of farmland, forests and land for construction.

According to the measures, legal entities in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions will be allowed to register real estate ownership in Guangdong. Banks in the two cities will also be able to register mortgages in other parts of the Greater Bay Area.

Analyst Liu Xiaobo said in his WeChat official account shortly after the release of the document that Shenzhen’s newly acquired powers will produce far-reaching impacts on the city’s development and housing market.