Buying a house “gives you a job”. How hard does this city work to attract people to the city?

Everyone has a dream, and Yulin, a small town in Guangxi, has a "big city dream."

In the past six months, the entire city of Yulin has launched a vigorous movement of people into the city. It all starts with a task established by Yulin City at the end of last year.

On December 30, 2021, Yulin City held a "Mobilization Meeting to Accelerate the Migration of Population into the City". At the meeting, it was proposed to speed up the construction of Yulin as a big city with a population of one million and realize the dream of Yulin people's big city. Target.

It is reported that although Yulin City has a large population base, the urban population is only a few hundred thousand, which is far from the minimum standard of 1 million for a large city.

Since the beginning of this year, Yulin has issued a series of policies to speed up the migration of people into the city. Now in Yulin, every district, county, and town has been assigned the task of “drawing people into the city” to ensure that the new permanent population in the urban area reaches more than 500,000 by 2025.

Official House Viewing Group

Located in Yulin, southeastern Guangxi, at the border with Guangdong Province, it has jurisdiction over Beiliu City, Rong County, Luchuan County, Bobai County, Xingye County, 7 counties (cities, districts) in Yuzhou District, Fumian District and Yudong New District. At the end of 2020, the registered population was 7.41 million and the permanent population was 5.8 million, making it the second most populous city in Guangxi.

Since January this year, local real estate projects in Yulin have received an endless stream of viewing groups. Different from purely commercial house viewing groups in other places, most of these house viewing groups are government groups, many of which are organized by local governments at all levels or functional agencies and units.

A real estate consultant for a real estate project in Yulin City told China News Weekly that since this year, the project has indeed received many official house viewing activities. "The number of people is uncertain, and most of them are organized by county-level agencies or come from towns and villages." The real estate consultant said.

The above statement has also been confirmed by many local real estate agents. In the official account of the Yulin Rong Media Center, "Yulin Publicity," relevant reports are common.

For example, on February 21, under the organization and deployment of the Party Committee of Fumian Town, Fumian District, 130 people from 26 local villages (communities) participated in a centralized house viewing activity. The house viewing group went to multiple properties in Yulin City to view houses. As of February 21, the number of units implemented in Fumian Town to move people into the city reached 37.

On February 24, Daqiao Town, Luchuan County organized more than 20 people to go to various real estate properties in Yulin City to conduct concentrated viewings. Qiu Zhaoqi, a member of the Party Committee of Daqiao Town in Luchuan County, said that in the next step, the town Party Committee and the government will take more forms to organize more people to go to the city to view houses.

In addition, on March 11, the Fumian District Health Bureau organized a house viewing group of more than 80 people from the health system; on March 16, the Xingye County Directly Affiliated Government Working Committee organized cadres who were interested in purchasing houses. , the masses formed a house viewing group and went to Yulin City to view houses; on April 26, Bobai County Urban Management and Supervision Bureau organized people who were willing to buy houses in Yulin to visit real estate projects in Yulin City.

In addition to organizing large and small viewing groups, Yulin also organized various forms of publicity activities. For example, on January 20, Yulin organized the “Concentrated Signing Ceremony for Accelerating Population Migration into the City and the Real Estate, Home Appliances and Home Decoration Exhibition”. A signing ceremony for house purchase and a ceremony for issuing financial subsidies for new citizens’ house purchase were also held on site.

According to the "Yulin Daily" report, since February this year, Yulin Greenland City*** has received nearly 1,000 house viewing groups and has sold more than 100 units; Yulin Country Garden's 4 properties have received a total of 1,000 house viewing groups. There are more than 300 room groups and more than 11,000 people.

Encouraging people to move into the city

Behind the endless stream of house viewing groups is Yulin’s vigorous population movement into the city.

Zhang Ming, who works in a government agency in Yulin, told China News Weekly that almost all local government agencies and public institutions have been assigned the task of promoting the migration of people into the city.

Similar to the organization of house viewing groups, some Yulin government agencies have also organized many publicity activities for people to visit villages and households and go deep into the community.

For example, on March 10, Daqiao Town in Luchuan County organized staff and volunteers to carry out publicity activities on the main streets of the town to promote people moving into the city. During the event, staff publicized policies related to population migration into the city by hanging banners, distributing materials to passing people, and giving on-site explanations.

On April 21, the Yulin Municipal Emergency Management Bureau organized cadres and employees to Maolin Town, Yudong New District to carry out publicity and mobilization activities to accelerate population migration into the city; the next day, the Yulin Municipal Development and Reform Commission went to Langping Town, Bobai County to carry out Accelerate publicity activities for people moving into cities.

In order to promote the migration of people into the city, Yulin even resorted to the big trick of buying a house to "send jobs". According to the "Several Policies and Measures of Yulin City on Accelerating Population Migration into the City" that have been issued, the local government is responsible for recommending more than three jobs to new citizens who have moved to the city to buy houses and are not employed, and the salary is not lower than the Yulin minimum wage standard.

“When we go out to promote, we will focus on promoting some key policies, such as house purchase subsidies and homestead exit policies.” Zhang Ming revealed.

Not only offline publicity, Li Hong, who works in a government agency in Yulin, told China News Weekly that the unit also requires everyone to share information about the population’s influx into the city online in Moments, WeChat groups, QQ groups, etc. Forward.

It is understood that Yulin has also introduced a housing purchase subsidy mechanism for new citizens to match the population moving into the city. Relevant policies show that new citizens who purchase the first new commercial housing of less than 90 square meters (inclusive) within the urban planning area will receive a subsidy of 6,000 yuan per unit; those who purchase the first new commercial housing of more than 90 square meters will receive a subsidy of 10,000 yuan per unit; A subsidy of RMB 50 will be given based on the deed tax paid for house purchase.

At the same time, according to the notice of "Yulin City's Implementation Rules for Exiting Compensation for Rural Homestead Sites to Accelerate the Migration of Population into the City", farmers who voluntarily withdraw from their homestead sites and promise not to apply for returning to rural areas to build housing shall refer to the local benchmark. The land price will be increased by 10%, and the land price compensation will be calculated based on the area of ??the withdrawn homestead; the above-ground buildings will be compensated based on the assessed replacement price of 10%.

This implementation rule is valid from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

Li Hong revealed that her unit also has an important task in the movement of people into the city, which is to contact migrant workers from Yulin. She said, "Whether these people are willing to return to their hometowns to buy houses is what we focus on."

Zhang Ming told China News Weekly that in every district, county, and town, people are being asked Tasks for the population to move into the city have been assigned, and “no matter the number of houses purchased or the number of new permanent residents, there are clear tasks.”

China News Weekly learned that in Yulin, government agencies at the municipal level, district and county levels, and even towns have been assigned tasks related to the migration of people into the city. The task is generally completed in four years, from 2022 to 2025, with specific quantitative indicators for each year.

For example, Yulin City has set a goal of bringing 500,000 permanent residents into the city by 2025. According to the number of registered residents, its subordinate Beiliu City, Rong County, Luchuan County, Bobai County, Xingye County, Yuzhou District, Fumian District and Yudong New District allocated 105,000, 59,000, 76,000, 130,000, 51,000, 35,000, 30,000 and 14,000 people to the city respectively. Task.

Each district or county assigns tasks to the streets or towns at the next level.

In addition to publicity and compaction tasks at all levels, Yulin has also set up a reward and punishment mechanism for people to move into the city.

Take Bobai County as an example. The county holds a weekly meeting on the progress of population migration into the city. At the work progress meeting on March 16, Bobai County conducted interviews with the bottom three towns and departments that ranked that week.

According to relevant documents, at the municipal level, Yulin will deduct performance points for counties (cities, districts) that cannot complete the task of moving people into the city, or even have their performance reduced.

The effect is unpredictable

Statistical data shows that in 2021, Yulin City’s urban population will be 2.9311 million, the rural population will be 2.8847 million, and the urbanization rate will be 50.4.

At the same time, the national urbanization rate in 2021 is 64.72, and Yulin’s urbanization rate is far lower than the national average.

Some analysts believe that this may be the reason why Yulin has recently vigorously promoted population migration into the city.

In the past six months, Yulin’s vigorous population migration campaign has achieved certain results in real estate sales. According to official statistics from Yulin, as of May 12, Yulin has accepted a total of 1,002 applications for house purchase and deed tax subsidies from new citizens, with a cumulative amount of 10.7028 million yuan distributed.

Li Meng, who lives in a township in Yulin, has his own observations and thoughts about the migration of people into cities. She said, "Except for those who have gone to college and can work as local teachers or civil servants, most young people from their hometown have gone to Guangdong to work, and a large part of them have stayed in Guangdong. This may be the reason why Yulin is eager to retain people."

Li Meng said that even with more persuasion, she and her friends would still prefer to stay in Guangdong. "House prices in Shenzhen and Guangzhou are high, but in Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and other places in the Pearl River Delta, housing prices are acceptable and job opportunities are far better than in Yulin," she said.

Many industry experts admit that the final result of Yulin’s population migration operation is still difficult to predict.

In the view of Wang Guangzhou, a researcher at the Institute of Population of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, mobilizing agricultural population transfer through administrative means may achieve certain results in the short term, but it may not be effective in the long term.

“Statistically speaking, 70 to 80% of the population migrates for work or business.” Wang Guangzhou told China News Weekly.

Chen Yao, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also believes that whether farmers are willing to move to the city is both a voluntary act and a natural process. When the urban economy and industry develop to a certain extent, agriculture The surplus population will naturally move to cities. The use of administrative means to promote urbanization is questionable.

He told China News Weekly that compared with using administrative means to mobilize people into cities, agriculture-based migration can be better attracted through industry and income.

“Yulin is geographically very close to the Pearl River Delta. Now many industries in the Pearl River Delta are seeking to relocate. Yulin should upgrade its infrastructure, improve its industrial supporting facilities, and especially create a better business environment so that Only in this way can farmers take over industries in the Pearl River Delta region. "Although farmers' income is slightly lower than that in Guangdong, they will choose to stay in Yulin more often because they can take care of their families."

( Zhang Ming, Li Hong, and Li Meng are pseudonyms in the article. The original title is: Buying a house “gives you a job.” How hard does this city work to attract people to the city?)