Welcome facelift for rural houses

Having lived in the city for years, retiree Pi Yu wants to escape the endless flow of cars, concrete high-rises and the fast-paced life.

“I’ve lived in the city for too long. I want to relax and go back to the countryside,” said the 57-year-old who teaches at a vocational school in Guizhou Province in southwest China.

Pi now lives in a village house 65km from Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, where her urban residence is. She grows Chinese roses, orchids, and osmanthus flowers and farms her own vegetables in the watertown.

She did not buy the house, however, as lands in villages are collectively owned. Unlike urban apartments, rural houses are not publicly traded. In 2018, she joined a program launched by a village tourism company that transforms decrepit rural houses into hotels.

She invested 200,000 yuan (US$29,800) and the company helped her secure a loan of an equal sum. In exchange, she can live in one of the rooms for free for 20 years, farm the land, and share the hotel dividends.

“The people in the city have the money, the farmers have vacant houses and the company offers services in hotel management — a win-win-win situation,” said Xiao Jintao, vice manager of Guizhou Shuidong Village Housing Tourism Company.

China’s urbanization rate reached 60 percent by the end of 2018, with over 830 million people now living in the cities. As people move into cities, around 20 percent of the old houses in the countryside are left vacant, Xiao said, based on an investigation of villages in Guizhou. “These rural houses are an excellent retreat for people who are bored living in cities and desire a more rural lifestyle,” Xiao said.

Under the company’s scheme, each investor puts in around US$30,000-150,000 to turn houses into hotel rooms. The three parties divide the earnings. When the lease expires in 20 years, the hotel ownership is returned to the farmers.

Pi renovated a 40-year-old house in Longguang Village. She kept backyard rooms which were used to make bricks and cure tobacco for what she calls a cool weekend town feel.

“It was a major facelift. The house looked like an ugly maid. Now it is as charming as Snow White,” she said.

In Kaiyang County, over 80 investors like Pi have renovated 120 houses. Local banks offered loans to finance the renovation and tourism infrastructure spending. Booming rural tourism brought handsome earnings for the investors. “In the last six months, each investor received around 20,000 yuan, and the farmers got 6,000 yuan each,” said Xiao.