Move to stop padding of property prices

ON FEB 18, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development began soliciting public opinions on a draft regulation that requires realty developers to sell newly-constructed buildings according to their exclusive usable floor area. Pan Helin, a postdoctoral scholar at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, comments:

If you buy an apartment of 100 square meters, it does not mean that is the exact size of the apartment, as that figure will also contain common areas, such as part of the corridor and the public stairs. The area that exclusively belongs to the buyer, or the so-called "usable floor area", will be about 70 square meters.

That has long been a cause for complaint. The draft regulation, if passed, will not eliminate these public areas. Unless you reside in a private villa, public stairs and corridors are required for access to the apartments, and the cost of these public areas must be shared by every occupier of the building.