New drive for jointly-owned homes
Shanghai will allow qualified residents with no hukou (permanent residence permit) to apply to own homes jointly for the first time so that more families will be covered in the city’s affordable housing scheme.
Starting in October, when the seventh round of application for the joint-ownership homes starts in phases across the city, people who have a residence card with 120 points of credit and have paid social security insurance or personal income taxes in Shanghai for more than five consecutive years might also be eligible to apply, the city government said Thursday. They should be married and do not own a house in the city, according to the local housing watchdog.
The new initiative will initially be conducted in selected districts this year and rolled out later around the city. Applicants with a Shanghai hukou will not be affected by the new initiative as the government will further increase the overall supply of joint-ownership homes to facilitate the expansion, according to the housing watchdog.
By the end of June, there were 92,000 households who have signed contracts to purchase joint-ownership houses in Shanghai.
The current policies to qualify for joint-ownership home application require applicants to have under 6,000 yuan (US$871) of disposable income per capita per month and below 180,000 yuan of assets per capita for families of three and more members. The applicants should also live in less than 15 square meters of housing area per capita.