Chapter 25 Chapter 23 The gray curtain of government agencies raising funds to build houses

Whether it is entrusted construction, targeted development or group buying, it is a disguised form of fund-raising to build a house, and it is a disguised continuation of welfare housing. "When I first started working, even if I borrowed money, I should have raised funds to build a house. It only cost more than 4,000 yuan per square meter, how cheap!" Zhou Hui, who graduated from university in 2001 and worked in an agency in Beijing, said with emotion, "When I first started working, The unit’s fund-raising housing is located on the West Second Ring Road, as long as it is an official employee, the area can be determined according to the difference in grade, and the unit price is more than 2,000 yuan different from the market price.”

However, Zhou Hui may never have this opportunity to raise funds to build a house. On August 18, 2006, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Supervision jointly issued the "Notice on Stopping Illegal Fundraising and Cooperative Housing Construction" (Document No. 196).The notice requires: "From the date of issuance of the document, the approval of party and government agencies' fund-raising and cooperative housing projects will be stopped, and some units will be prevented from distributing housing in disguised forms." From the perspective of social fairness, prohibiting party and government agencies from raising funds to build houses, and strictly restricting public institutions from building fund-raising houses, has been widely recognized by people.However, since the housing security system is not in place after the housing reform, after the moratorium on raising funds to build houses, how to solve the normal needs of civil servants and public institution personnel due to substandard housing or "no housing" still needs to be resolved in a reasonable and compliant manner.Relevant experts interviewed believed that: "The issuance of Document No. 196 directly pushes the housing problems of government agencies to the market, which will have a greater adverse impact on young people who have not yet solved their housing problems."

In the eyes of many people, the regulation to stop raising funds to build houses seems to have come too late. The so-called fund-raising housing construction refers to a period of time after the reform of the urban housing system in 1998. Due to the lack of stock housing resources, some party and government agencies and institutions solved the housing difficulties of employees. "House" treatment takes the lead in organizing the construction of houses and sells them within the unit.However, in practice, in some areas, there have been problems such as the distribution of housing benefits in kind by some government agencies and units in the name of raising funds and cooperating to build houses, and encroaching on state-owned assets and public resources.

"As urban land resources become increasingly scarce and market housing prices are getting higher and higher, building houses with funds has changed from solving the housing problems of difficult workers at the beginning to gradually becoming a breeding ground for corruption in power departments and a power tool for interest competition." Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology Professor Li Mingwei believes that "the form of unit raising funds to build houses is exclusive, and it actually monopolizes resources." According to the reporter's investigation, many local agencies and units that raise funds to build houses use their administrative privileges and resources to obtain cheap land in the name of housing for employees, etc., and enjoy various tax reductions and preferential policies in terms of project construction taxes and fees. Substantially reduce the cost of building houses; or use departmental administrative power and influence to "group buy" commercial houses.This has alleviated the housing difficulties of some cadres and workers whose housing did not meet the standard or had no housing to a certain extent. At the same time, it has also made the housing of some government and unit personnel with good housing conditions better and better.However, most of the urban residents with poor housing can only buy commercial housing at market prices.

"Current fund-raising housing construction mainly includes entrusted construction, targeted development, and group purchases." According to industry insiders, some government agencies use the administrative land allocated by the unit to entrust developers to develop housing according to their own housing needs; agencies without land Units choose developers from the market or set up real estate development companies by themselves, and entrust them with a series of real estate development activities such as land purchase, house construction, and supporting facilities. Relevant experts believe that whether it is entrusted construction, targeted development or group buying, it is a disguised form of fund-raising to build a house, and it is a disguised continuation of welfare housing distribution.

From housing allocation in kind to monetization, and from welfare housing allocation to going to the market, these are the two basic directions of my country's housing reform.So far, this goal has been basically achieved in ordinary citizens or non-power departments.In recent years, "raising funds to build houses" undoubtedly runs counter to this goal. Relevant sociologists believe that illegal and excessive fund-raising to build houses is concealed and deceptive. On the surface, it is to solve the housing difficulties for employees. In fact, some government officials take advantage of policy loopholes and take state-owned resources for small groups and individuals. Unexpected public grievances.

First of all, the housing area and grade violate the relevant national policies.According to the "Administrative Measures for Affordable Housing", fund-raising and cooperative building are part of economically affordable housing, and should be strictly controlled to focus on small and medium-sized apartments, with an area of ​​about 80 square meters for a medium apartment and about 60 square meters for a small apartment. .In many places, many party and government agencies or public institutions raise funds to build houses as small as 90 square meters, as large as 150 square meters, and some even have high-end housing of more than 200 square meters.

Second, it squeezes out affordable housing that is sold to low- and middle-income groups.The reporter learned that in many parts of the country, the proportion of government agencies and units raising funds to build houses accounted for an increasing proportion of the entire affordable housing, and in some places even reached more than 50%, which led to ordinary people in the cities buying affordable housing for sale probability is getting lower and lower. In addition, internal sales are not strictly controlled, and those who have no houses or whose houses do not meet the standards can buy them, and those whose houses meet the standards can also buy them.Although it is expressly stipulated that cadres and workers who have purchased public housing can no longer participate in raising funds to build houses, many government agencies still legalize the behavior of occupying more houses and occupying large houses by raising funds to build houses in a disguised form under the pretext of housing shortages for cadres and workers.According to surveys, the internal sales prices of such "fund-raising houses" in various places are often 1/3 to 1/4 lower than the local market price, and some are even only about half of the market price.

A few days ago, the reporter made unannounced visits to some relatively well-known affordable housing complexes in Beijing, among which there are government agencies that "raise funds" or "group purchase" housing in disguise.I saw private cars filling up all available parking spaces.What Audi, Santana, Jetta, Hyundai... There are many famous cars among them.No wonder some people joked: "Affordable houses live in rich people, and camels come out of sheep." "The reasons for the change in the quality of fund-raising to build houses are very complicated. The main reason is that the housing monetization policy is not in place, and the gap between the salary income of government and unit personnel and commodity housing prices is too large." A staff member of the Beijing Housing Management Bureau analyzed that, "In 1998, the State Council announced that The prohibition stopped the distribution of housing in kind nationwide, and at that time it was proposed to gradually implement the monetization of housing distribution. However, after the suspension of distribution of housing in kind, the income of government agencies and units did not increase accordingly.”

"At the same time, due to various reasons in various localities and departments, the housing monetization subsidy has not been in place or the distribution amount of various departments is very different. Against this background, quasi-welfare housing allocation has gradually risen in various places. Some government agencies and units are under the cloak of marketization Continue to build and buy houses, and sell them to the staff of the unit at a lower price." The reporter found that the "tightening curse" imposed by the No. 196 document on party and government agencies raising funds to build houses has caused a larger level of controversy in the society.

"The primary purpose of canceling fund-raising to build houses now is to cancel the corruption of power in the name of the collective and welfare, and to ensure the fairness and order of the commercial housing market." The department’s housing is included in the market-oriented operation, which is to make the relevant units feel the same with the housing market, so as to effectively implement the housing security system.” "A healthy market environment must eliminate the occupation and abuse of social resources by power. Only under the background of fair rights can we appeal to the rationality of the market." Associate Professor Yang Zhonghong of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Rent, the government has repeatedly adjusted the real estate market, so that it will not fall into the game with the "shadow". "Abolishing the fund-raising and building of houses by party and government agencies, so that national civil servants and people of other classes are on an equal footing, it should be said that it is a major measure to build a harmonious society and curb power corruption." Yang Chongjian, a Beijing citizen, believes, "This will allow The majority of civil servants, like the people, entered the market economy at the same time, and truly experienced the difficulty of buying a house and the difficulty of buying a house. It’s a good thing that harms nothing.” "Housing is a new problem for civil servants, but for enterprise workers, engineering and technical personnel, and laid-off workers, it is already too old, rare and difficult. Since it is a market economy, everyone should enter the market , Only in this way can social fairness be reflected.” Wang Anping, a citizen of Beijing, said that civil servants should be given housing provident funds that meet local standards, so that they can “share suffering” like ordinary people, so that they can truly understand the suffering of the people and do things for the people. "House prices are so high, civil servants' salaries are so low, and now there are no fund-raising houses! How can we live? Unit fund-raising to build houses has been cancelled, but the wages of employees have not been raised accordingly. Some capable young people in our agency are under pressure to buy houses. They are going to switch jobs to foreign companies with high wages." Mr. Zhang, who just started working in Beijing, complained, "The suspension of fundraising for building houses will really affect those young civil servants who have just started working. ?!" "If we really provide housing for needy workers, we have no objection. But these years, those government officials who hold power have been buying bigger and bigger houses, occupying more and more houses, and some people have several houses." Wang Wang Hua is a college student who has just started working in a government agency. He now rents with his friends near the South Third Ring Road. He said, "Since it is unreasonable for party and government agencies to raise funds to build houses, they should strictly clean up the previous fund-raising to build houses. They have raised funds in the past. Those who build houses should also settle the cost of building houses, which is the real reflection of fairness." "Stop raising funds to build houses is first of all a matter of fairness." Yang Hua graduated from university in 2003 and later became the owner of an individual private enterprise. He believes, "When the state introduces these policies, it is more important to consider stopping the rapid increase in housing prices. It will have an effective effect on the stability of society.” Many people believe that the promulgation of Decree No. 196 is actually a starting point for improving the reform of the housing security system with the help of the central government. However, the reporter's investigation found that after the promulgation of Circular 196, some people also had such a worry, that is, the current commodity housing prices are very different from the current income of civil servants, and whether it will lead to a new round of "squatting" by civil servants with real power. Power rent-seeking"? "Party and government agencies raise funds to build houses to allocate resources for power. The key to the realization of the 'stop' goal is whether the operation of public power can be effectively restricted." Li Chengyan believes that compared with current housing prices, the income of most civil servants is not high. If housing protection is not provided, there will inevitably be those who are not willing to give up and let the fund-raising and construction of houses be disguised and come back in a different way. In a survey report on civil servant housing by the State Council Office Affairs Administration, such concerns can also be seen: "If the interests and status of civil servants and other social classes are not properly handled, there will be a big gap with other sectors of society. , based on the basic human psychology, civil servants who have a certain amount of power will use their power to engage in 'power rent-seeking' when conditions permit." Obviously, these worries are not superfluous. The history of reform has repeatedly told us that when those with vested interests are forced to give up one way of obtaining benefits, they will always quickly find another alternative way. A "stop order" alone is far from enough. not enough.Such typical cases, in addition to the facts that can be heard and seen from around, have been disclosed by the news media in recent years. Hechuan Traffic Police Brigade "raised funds to build" villas for employees, and so on. In the interview, some people also reported that some local governments and departments with deep "foresight" had already made plans long before the ban of the three ministries and commissions was promulgated. Among them, in the new area, some "workaround" methods such as reserving some houses for civil servants bypass the central prohibition and seek benefits for civil servants in violation of regulations. For this reason, some experts reminded that although fund-raising for building houses has been stopped, there may still be cases of fund-raising and building houses in disguised ways such as "entrusted construction" and "directed development". If the measures in Document No. 196 are to be fully implemented, they must be refined.In particular, the "any name" and "any method" in the "any name and any method of raising funds to build a house" mentioned in the document should list dozens of typical forms and match them with corresponding punishment measures. Do not leave an opportunity for violators. Similarly, after the moratorium on fund-raising for building houses, it will not affect the convenience of some units and individuals to buy houses, because as long as the privileges in their hands are still there, it will be difficult to stop their profit-seeking hands.For example, price-limited housing and affordable housing on the market are likely to become the next target for privileged housing. What also needs to be vigilant is that if some government agencies cannot build their own houses, they may use fiscal funds or their own funds to issue high "housing subsidies".If the supervision is lazy, the phenomenon of playing around the edges is inevitable. During the interviews, many people were able to reach a consensus that stopping power departments from raising funds to build houses, whether from the perspective of social fairness and market fairness, or based on the need to oppose welfare corruption and power rent-seeking, this measure reflects the correct orientation. Some experts believe that in order to eliminate the impulse of government agencies and units to raise funds to build houses, they should dynamically formulate corresponding housing subsidy levels and provide corresponding financial guarantees. In my country's housing security system, provident fund is the only housing security enjoyed by most people.However, according to the reporter's understanding, from the date of its establishment, the provident fund has played little role in solving housing problems for government agencies and individuals.According to the "2004 China Real Estate Financial Report" released by the central bank, by the end of 2004, the balance of national housing provident fund deposits was 489.35 billion yuan.Excluding personal housing loans and the purchase of government bonds, there are still accumulated funds of 208.33 billion yuan. Professor Zhu Lijia from the Department of Public Administration of the National School of Administration, who has participated in the reform of the civil servant salary system and personnel system for many times, told the media that the No. 196 document is designed to prevent the power department from intervening too much in the reform, which will lead to the widening of the income gap. "This ban is closely related to civil servant salary reform and income distribution reform." However, according to the reporter's understanding, in terms of housing monetization, there is still no substantive new policy on the housing subsidies for government personnel.According to the "2007 Central Administration and Institutions Purchase Subsidy Standards" released by the General Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance in July 2006, the maximum subsidy amount can reach 1,600 yuan, but the subsidy for house purchases below the department level is only 800 yuan.This standard obviously cannot adapt to the current market housing price level. It is understood that after some places stopped the distribution of housing in kind, about one-third of the staff of government agencies and units did not meet the housing standards or have no housing for various reasons. Among them, there are many new recruits or transfers after 1999. cadres, etc.Another example is the transfer of cadres from other places to Beijing. The average price of commercial housing in Beijing is often more than double that of the city from which they were transferred. How to "replace" housing to solve the housing problem?Existing subsidies are difficult to support. "When the fund-raising housing construction is stopped, it is necessary to follow up with a large number of related policies to improve the housing security system including government agencies and enterprise officials and workers." Step up the corresponding financial guarantees in place, fully distribute monetized subsidies, and implement the provident fund system.The second is to increase the content of housing consumption in wages and enhance the ability to pay for housing or renting.The third is to improve the housing security system.Strengthen the payment ability of cadres and workers by implementing housing monetization subsidies and other means, and guide groups with corresponding purchasing power to enter the market to buy commercial housing; for young civil servants who are basically able to afford but do not have enough ability to purchase market-oriented commercial housing, the government can develop Reasonably and compliantly solve their housing problems in affordable housing. More and more signals show that the fund-raising housing construction that has been placed under the spotlight of public opinion has been suspended, and new issues have been raised for the effective implementation of the housing security system.The effect of the ban implementation is closely related to the reform of the housing security system and the elimination of the "grey area" in the housing consumption of government agencies.Many experts believe that the financial support and government responsibility that have been absent again and again will be the key to improving the reform of the housing security system!