MOST low-cost housing applicants who claimed they had no family assets would have to resubmit their applications, yesterday s Shenzhen Evening News reported.
Government inspections found the total assets of the families did not exceed 320,000 yuan (US$47,897), the maximum allowed for an applicant to be eligible to apply for an apartment, an unidentified official from the low-cost housing management team in Futian District said.
After a second round of official checks last week, some applicants were found to have no family assets, but lived in upmarket residential areas which were rented or borrowed from others. Others were found to have Shenzhen hukou but worked and lived outside Shenzhen or were urban villagers. The revelations caused a public outcry that forced some applicants to cancel their applications.
The Futian District housing department said it had carefully checked all applicants living in expensive residential areas to make sure they had the required documents, such as lease contracts. For example, Ou Donghong, who lives in a residential compound where housing prices are as high as 30,000 yuan per square meter, showed a certificate indicating he is living in a friend s apartment for free, the official said.
Ma Fei, of the urban construction department in Guangming New Zone, said most of the applicants were migrants. They came to Shenzhen as early as the 1950s and 1960s and had to transfer their hukou to villages. But they hold urban hukou and are subject to policies different from the original villagers, so they cannot get land or houses like other villagers, Ma said.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
