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Chitchat Screwed by CCP new property law: Hundreds of PRCs protest in Shanghai!

kryonlight

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Hundreds protest in Shanghai over ban on selling converted flats

Rare demonstration came after the city authorities barred owners from selling on apartments that were converted from office or commercial space

Hundreds of demonstrators have marched through a shopping district in Shanghai protesting against changes to housing regulations, in a rare show of public dissent in the financial hub.

Footage of the late Saturday protests shared on social media showed hundreds, if not thousands, of demonstrators holding placards and shouting slogans while marching along Nanjing Road, a glitzy shopping strip in the city centre.

One video showed police setting up blockades and dragging a demonstrator away. Media carried no reports of the demonstrations, while mentions of the protests on social media were scrubbed by internet censors.

Shanghai police did not respond to requests for comment.

Two witnesses said about 10 of the protesters who were hoisting banners and appeared to be leading the demonstrations were taken away by the police.

“One whole side of the street in front of the Apple store was filled with people,” said one nearby stall owner who declined to be identified, adding the crowd gathered at about 8 pm and dispersed by 10 pm. “The police came and took the leaders away,” the stall owner said.

Protesters were angry about measures announced on May 17 by Shanghai’s housing bureau to “clean-up and rectify” commercial office projects that had been converted into apartments to cater for residential needs in a grey area property developers previously exploited by acquiring land at cheaper prices than residential-zoned land.

The government measures, part of a bid to keep property speculation and soaring real estate prices in check, required developers and buyers to rectify violations such as separately installed toilets and kitchens before they are able to be sold on, effectively rendering them uninhabitable and worth a fraction of the purchase price.


A total of 17 million square metres of such projects are targeted by the campaign, the Shanghai government said on its social media account, of which five million square metres have been delivered to buyers.

“They are shouting for their only home in Shanghai, bought by their whole family’s savings through legal means,” one person said in a social media post, which was later deleted.

“This year the government suddenly changed policies, saying it’s not allowed to live in there, leaving hundreds of thousands of ordinary homeowners unable to normally sell their homes.”

Protests, while still relatively rare in China, increasingly break out over contentious issues including the construction of rubbish incinerators or pollution from factories near homes.
 

kryonlight

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Hundreds take to streets of downtown Shanghai to protest ban on living in commercial property

Hundreds of people took the streets of Shanghai Saturday evening to protest the local government's recent ban on people living in commercial properties.

The official announcement also said that people who have recently bought commercial properties converted to residential use will not be able to take legal possession of the apartments.

Around two to three hundred people marched down Nanjing Road, the city's busiest shopping area, on 9 pm Saturday, a resident surnamed Luo who lives on the street told the Global Times, adding some of the demonstrators were holding banners and encouraging people to take photos.

According to a security guard who works nearby, the police arrived at the scene four or five minutes after the protest began. The protest lasted for about one hour, and it is not clear if the police detained any of the demonstrators.

One protestor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times that the marchers were people living in commercial properties converted to apartments.

The Shanghai Municipal Committee of Residence and Urban-Rural Construction issued a notice on May 17 saying that the conversion of commercial premises into residential buildings violates "relevant laws and regulations; it brings serious safety hazards." The notice added that controlling the use of commercial buildings can "protect the order of the property market and protect real estate buyers' legal rights."

It also said that people who own property designated as for commercial purposes cannot enjoy the same rights as homeowners when it comes to applying for Shanghai hukou (household registration) and all the advantages that possession of a local hukou brings, in terms of healthcare, property rights and education.

The notice explained that people who have bought commercial properties that have been converted into apartments, but have not yet moved in, will now not be able to get the official documents which prove that they own the property. The notice did not say what course of action these people should take, merely advising them to "fight for their legal rights."

The publicity bureau of Huangpu district, where Nanjing Road is located, did not respond to interview requests from the Global Times as of press time.

The anonymous protestor said that the people who have been living in commercial premises converted to residential use were forced to do so either by the city's sky-high residential property prices, or because they were unable to buy such property as they lack local hukou.

The government notice said that many developers misled property buyers by telling them that although buildings had been zoned as for commercial use, they could convert them into apartments.
 

Papsmearer

Alfrescian (InfP) - Comp
Generous Asset
In Zikapore, Peasants told by PAP that the flats they thought they had bought, must be given back to the HDB. Not even one peasant protested? Gutless sinkies.
 

kryonlight

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