China’s land ministry¹ will automatically renew residential² leases set to expire next year, temporarily dispelling³ homeowners’ concerns about an erosion of their property rights.

中国国土资源部将对明年到期的住房土地使用权自动续期，这暂时消除了房屋所有者对于产权缩水的担忧。

In an announcement at the weekend, the land ministry said that 20-year residential property leases in the eastern city of Wenzhou would be automatically extended without charge, ending speculation⁴ that homeowners would face steep renewal⁵ fees equivalent to one-third of their property’s value.

在上周末的一份声明中，中国国土资源部表示，针对中国东部城市温州的20年住房土地使用权到期问题，不需要提出续期申请，不收取费用。这结束了外界的猜测，即房屋所有者将面临高额的土地出让金，占房产价值的三分之一。

Ever since Deng Xiaoping’s landmark⁶ economic reforms were introduced in the early 1980s, allowing people to buy land and property for the first time since the 1949 Communist revolution, titles in the world’s most populous⁷ country have been limited by fixed-term leases.

自从邓小平于上世纪80年代初开展里程碑式的经济改革以来（这是自1949年建国以来中国首次允许人们购买土地和房产），这个全球人口最多的国家的土地所有权一直受到固定租期的限制。

The first of these to expire, 20-year leases for residential land in Wenzhou, were a closely watched test of how the renewals⁸ would be handled. An earlier suggestion by local officials that renewal fees would be set at one-third of a property’s value sparked an outcry amongst the country’s homeowners, many of whom have become dollar millionaires thanks to the huge run-up in urban real estate⁹ prices over recent years.

温州的20年土地使用权的住宅用地是首个到期的住宅用地，受到外界的密切关注，它将测试中国政府如何处理土地使用权到期问题。早些时候，一些地方政府官员建议，续期费用将定在房地产价值的三分之一，这引发了中国房屋所有者的强烈抗议，最近几年，城市房价的飙升让很多房屋所有者变成了百万美元富翁。

The intervention¹⁰ by China’s housing minister, Wang Guanghua, highlights the political sensitivity of the issue, especially at a time when middle-class concerns over environmental pollution and an increasingly repressive political climate are exacerbating¹¹ capital flight.

国土资源部副部长王广华强调了这个问题的政治敏感性，特别是在中产阶级对环境污染和日益严厉的政治环境的担忧正加剧资金抽逃之际。

Most property leases run for 70 years, making Wenzhou’s looming¹² expirations an exception that could have been left for the local government to handle. But China’s wealthy and middle-class urban homeowners are the ruling Communist party’s most important constituency. Nationwide, 90 per cent of households own their own homes.

多数住宅建设用地使用权为70年，这让温州的住房土地使用权到期问题变成一个例外，这个问题本可以留给地方政府解决。但中国的富有中产阶级城市房屋所有者是执政党共产党的最重要的支持者。从全国来看，90%的家庭拥有自己的住房。

Mr Wang’s announcement, however, does not signal a final resolution of the issue. The minister said the government was studying a new law that would regulate lease renewals nationwide.

然而，王广华的声明并不表明这个问题得到了最终解决。国土资源部表示，政府正在研究新的法律，来监管全国的土地使用权续期问题。

The shorter lease tenures were introduced in Wenzhou in the 1990s to make properties more affordable¹³.

上世纪90年代，为了让人们买得起房，温州推出了较短年限的住宅用地使用权。

Nationwide, soaring property prices have forced local governments to introduce a series of measures to reduce speculative¹⁴ buying. A recent central government conference on economic issues for the coming years said that “homes are for living in, not for speculating with”.

全国房价的飙升迫使地方政府推出一系列举措，以减少投机性购房。最近一次中央政府经济工作会议对2017年的经济工作做出了全面部署，会议称“房子是用来住的，不是用来炒的”。