[photopress:real_estate_farm_house_1.jpg,full,alignright]In a bid to control land use the government has banned urban Chinese from buying residential land or houses from farmers. An executive meeting of the State Council, China’s cabinet, warned that policies on rural land use will be strictly enforced.
State Councilors urged local governments to strengthen rural land management, improve the village and town planning and tighten control over the construction of farmers’ homes.
Farmers’ homes shall be built primarily on land that is idle or approved for housing and the policy that each rural household is allowed to have only one patch of housing land would be rigidly enforced.
Urban residents are forbidden from buying housing land or homes from farmers, and work units and individuals are prohibited from renting or occupying rural land for real estate development.
The meeting was presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao and State Councilors were ordered to see that government departments strictly examine land use plans and rein in sprawling urban projects.
China is facing a sharp conflict between land supply and demand, and the area of arable land, which had shrunk by 4.6 million mu from the end of last year to 1.827 billion mu, was only slightly above the minimum of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) set by the government.
State Councilors said the government needed to set up the most stringent land management system, take strong moves against land waste and promote land saving and better planning.
Source: China.org.cn