Shanghai Tightens Home-Buying Rules for Singles

The Chinese have a proverb that says, “Build a nest before attracting the phoenix.” Sticking with tradition, Tank Zhao had begun looking for an apartment as he planned to marry his girlfriend next year. Now the 28-year-old software engineer from Fujian province finds himself frozen out of Shanghai’s real estate market by a new prohibition on single nonresidents buying property in China’s second most populous city. “The policy is unreasonable; we aren’t speculators, we just need a place to live,” says Zhao. “Getting married first goes against our culture. I’ll have to explain to my girlfriend’s family that the Shanghai policy is what it is.”

Concerned about a housing bubble, Shanghai last year began limiting locals who have coveted official residency permits to owning two homes. However, nonlocals, who make up more than a third of the city’s 23 million residents, can own only one property. Unmarried nonlocals, who had been able to buy as long as they were able to document a year or more of tax payments, are no longer permitted to do so after the city toughened its curbs in June.