Guangzhou Issues the First Housing Vouchers in China’s First-tier Cities

Credit: CFP

BEIJING, January 9 (TMTPOST) – Liwan District Land Development Center in megacity Guanghzou has doled out the city’s first housing voucher during the Shiweitang shantytown revival program, which also marks the first housing voucher to residents in China’s tier-1 cities that also include Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The housing voucher contains details such as voucher type, home address for buying, face value, policy incentives, the usage or redemption period, and the newly built commercial housing can be purchased by individuals or their immediate family members, according to “Guangzhou Liwan” WeChat public account.

Liwan District Land Development Center selected the Shiweitang project as a pilot. Since 2022, various cities like Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen, Guiyang, and Wuxi have implemented housing voucher resettlement policies on a smaller scale and over a limited timeframe.

The “housing voucher resettlements” program aims to accelerate the transformation of villages in cities. Over a long time, urban renewal in Guangzhou has predominantly relied on market forces. Among the 270-plus urban villages in Guangzhou, fewer than 10 have been transformed, highlighting persistent challenges in the city’s urban renewal efforts, according to media reports.