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For Zhang Hua (pseudonym), an owner of Wuhan Yangtze Youth City, and other people, it is not easy to sell their small apartments: since the developer does not intend to buy back the houses, and the houses can only be sold to college students who have graduated in Wuhan within five years, finding suitable buyers in the current real estate market environment is almost an "impossible task."

Recently, several owners of Wuhan Yangtze Youth City, including Zhang Hua, told the quality complaint platform of The Paper (https://tousu.thepaper.cn) about their experience of selling houses. They said that the application conditions at that time clearly stated that the housing for college students could not be listed for trading and had to be repurchased by the original seller. Now the developer has said that it has no intention of repurchasing the housing, so they hope that the relevant departments will make corresponding adjustments to the previously announced housing policy for college students.

In response to this, Yangtze Youth City's developer, Yangtze Youth City Development (Wuhan) Co., Ltd., and the Wuhan Huangpi District Housing and Renewal Bureau both said they are working hard to relax restrictions on the sale of second-hand homes.

It was an important measure for college students to stay in Wuhan

What Zhang Hua and others want to sell is the Yangtze River Youth City, which is known as the housing for college students and is located in the Panlongcheng Economic Development Zone in Huangpi District, Wuhan City.

In 2019, Zhang Hua, who had graduated from university three years ago, bought a small apartment of 72.37 square meters in Area A of Changjiang Youth City at a price of 7,400 yuan per square meter. "The price was preferential. At that time, the price of surrounding apartments was 9,000 yuan per square meter."

According to China Real Estate News, in 2017, in order to achieve the goal of retaining one million college students in five years, Wuhan explored solutions to the problems of household registration, housing, wages, etc. for college students who stayed in Wuhan. On the housing issue, by promoting structural reforms on the supply side of the real estate industry and comprehensively using a variety of measures such as finance, land, investment, and fee reduction, more college graduates who stayed in Wuhan could buy affordable housing at 20% below the market price.

Part of Mr. Zhang's house purchase contract

Yangtze River Youth City emerged in this context. The project started construction in 2017, covering an area of ​​1,000 mu, with a total construction area of ​​about 1.66 million square meters, which can accommodate 50,000 college graduates. Among them, Area A, as the first batch of college student housing, was officially sold to the public in 2019.

The reporter of The Paper noted that the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening the Housing Security for University Graduates (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions (Trial)") issued by the General Office of Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and the General Office of Wuhan Municipal Government on October 11, 2017 clearly stated that university graduates who apply for affordable housing for university graduates shall adopt a waiting list lottery method for allocation and sales in accordance with the principle of "high-end priority, structural optimization, highlighting key points, and ensuring fairness". College students who have graduated within 5 years, have Wuhan household registration, have been employed in Wuhan for 1 year, whose families do not own housing in Wuhan, and have no housing transaction records within 3 years, can apply to purchase 1 set of affordable housing for university graduates.

Relevant documents issued by the General Office of Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and the General Office of Wuhan Municipal Government in 2017

The Implementation Opinions (Trial) also proposed the implementation of a circular exit mechanism, and the housing for university graduates cannot be listed for trading. If it needs to be sold, if it has full ownership, the original seller will buy it back at 80% of the market price at that time; if it has joint ownership, the joint owners will buy it back at 80% of the market price at that time according to the ownership ratio.

The relevant push notifications on the WeChat official account of Yangtze Youth City also showed that the sales standards of Yangtze Youth City at that time were: college students who had graduated within five years, had a Wuhan household registration, had been employed in a business in Wuhan for one year, and whose families had no self-owned housing in Wuhan and no housing transaction records within three years.

"Because of the favorable price and the buyback policy, I bought it without thinking twice," said Zhang Hua.

Yangtze River Youth City Public Account Content

Many complaints about electricity and supporting facilities

The sales policy for college graduate housing changed in 2018.

On May 22, 2018, the Wuhan Housing Security and Housing Management Bureau (now renamed: Wuhan Housing and Urban Renewal Bureau) and the Wuhan Talent Recruitment Bureau jointly issued the "Wuhan University Graduates' Affordable Housing Supply and Management Measures (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Supply and Management Measures (Trial)"), which proposed the concept of priority repurchase.

According to the "Supply and Management Measures (Trial)", housing for university graduates cannot be listed for trading. If the buyer needs to sell or withdraw from the housing for university graduates, the project developer will give priority to repurchase the housing at 80% of the market price at that time if the buyer has full ownership. If the project developer waives the priority repurchase, the buyer can sell it to other qualified university graduates at 80% of the market price at that time.

Related documents jointly issued by Wuhan Housing Security and Housing Administration Bureau and Wuhan Talent Recruitment Bureau in 2018

At the same time, as university graduates move in either buying or renting houses, Yangtze Youth City continues to receive complaints, the most prominent of which are temporary electricity use and incomplete regional supporting facilities.

A report in China Real Estate News in November 2023 showed that the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau of Huangpi District, Wuhan City, stated in response to relevant complaints from owners of Zone C of Yangtze Youth City that the buyers' reflection that the developer was using temporary electricity was true, and they were urging the developer to actively solve the electricity problem.

Wang Ying (pseudonym), an owner of Area A of Changjiang Youth City, told The Paper that some owners of Area A of Changjiang Youth City are currently facing a real dilemma - the community property management restricts some owners from paying electricity bills and only allows these owners to recharge 50 kWh of electricity per day.

"On June 13 this year, someone in the community owner group said that because they had not paid the property management fee, the property management company only allowed them to charge 50 kWh of electricity." Zhang Hua, who saw the message in the group, realized that the property management company limited the charging quota for owners who had not paid the property management fee, and each household could only charge 50 kWh of electricity per day. "In the summer, the temperature is high and the demand for electricity is high. 50 kWh of electricity will be gone in a short time. Owners must frequently go to the property management company to pay the electricity bill. Moreover, owners cannot check their electricity usage by themselves. They can only know that the electricity is exhausted when the power goes out. This has caused great trouble to our lives."

In this regard, the staff of Changjiang Youth City Property Management - Vanke Property Management said that they have communicated with the project manager. "After the project manager failed to communicate with the owners who had long owed property management fees, he told them that the electricity fee would be charged at 50 degrees per day, hoping that the owners would pay the property management fees on time."

"We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to the residents due to the improper handling of this matter. We will recover the unpaid property fees through legal means." The above-mentioned staff member said that the project manager has contacted the relevant owners and informed them that they can purchase electricity according to demand in the future.

Pushing to relax purchasing conditions

After living in Yangtze River Youth City for five years, Zhang Hua wanted to sell his house. But he found it very difficult to sell. "According to the Wuhan Housing Bureau, we can only sell it to college students who graduated within five years as affordable housing. According to this standard, it is very difficult to find a suitable buyer."

As early as a year ago, Zhang Hua's neighbor Wang Rui (pseudonym) had already found it difficult to sell her house. Wang Rui told The Paper that she went to the Housing Bureau to transfer ownership in 2023, but failed at that time. This year, she called the Housing Bureau again and received a reply that eligible college students must bring their household registration and other identity documents to the window of the Housing Bureau to obtain a purchase certificate before she can transfer ownership.

"Some of my neighbors have already found buyers, but they are stuck at this stage," Zhang Hua said. Wang Rui also confirmed this. She said that she had found several buyers before, but they were unable to complete the subsequent house selling process because they did not meet the requirement of graduating from university within five years.

The Paper checked Wuhan Lianjia and found that there are currently 19 second-hand houses in Changjiang Youth City on Wuhan Lianjia, including 6 in District A and 13 in District B. However, there is only one second-hand house listed on the Wuhan Talent Housing Website (formerly the Wuhan Million University Students Entrepreneurship and Employment Information Service Platform).

"I want to sell my affordable housing, but there is no new policy. According to the original policy, it can only be sold to college graduates within five years of graduation. But with the current real estate market, it is difficult to find college students who meet this condition willing to buy it." An owner who did not want to be named told The Paper.

Regarding the transaction process of affordable housing for university graduates such as Yangtze Youth City, on June 18, 2020, Wuhan Housing Security and Housing Management Bureau and Wuhan Talent Recruitment Bureau jointly issued the "Notice on Standardizing the Management of Secondary Transactions of University Graduates' Affordable Housing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The "Notice" stated that when the university graduate affordable housing is traded again, the owner of the right shall apply to the district housing management department. After accepting the application, the district housing management department shall solicit the opinions of the project developer (co-owner) on whether to claim the priority right of repurchase. If the developer is willing to repurchase, the repurchase procedures shall be carried out according to the determined price and relevant regulations, and the housing source shall be included in the supporting scope of the university graduate affordable housing.

Regarding the second-hand housing transaction of Yangtze Youth City, a reporter from The Paper called the developer of Yangtze Youth City, Yangtze Youth City Development (Wuhan) Co., Ltd., as an owner. Relevant personnel said that the latest policy on affordable housing for college graduates is that developers have priority to repurchase, but the company has no plans to repurchase at present. The company's customer relations staff later confirmed to The Paper that the relevant properties have not been repurchased yet.

A reporter from The Paper called the Huangpi District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau in Wuhan as an owner, and the relevant person in charge also said that regarding the repurchase of college students' housing, the latest policy clearly states that "enterprises have priority to repurchase at 80% of the market price at that time." Priority means that enterprises have the right to choose to repurchase or not.

The above-mentioned person in charge said that they have noticed the issue of restrictions on the identity of buyers in the transfer of second-hand houses in District A of Yangtze Youth City, and are actively reporting it to the higher authorities. "The current progress is that the Municipal Talent Bureau is reviewing it, and the owners need to wait patiently. As for the scope of the restrictions that can eventually be lifted, we still need to follow the latest policies."