Construction land-use permits should be given to big cities in priority
On June 19, the Ministry of Land and Resources promulgated Regulations on Economical and Intensive Use of Land, wherein existing system on economical and intensive land was promoted to law and “no” was clearly said to waste of land.
Especially small and medium-sized cities have phenomenon of low level of intensive use of urban land, and have relatively more problems on extensive land use and illegal land use, etc. In recent years, some medium-sized cities in Midwest have been building new towns with rapid land expansion. However, the population density in built-up areas has dropped significantly. In contrast, the yield of unit land for big cities and megacities is much higher than small and medium-sized cities, and the population density of built-up areas is also higher.
Facing this phenomenon, the solution provided by the Ministry is puzzling. In their opinion, small and medium-sized cities waste land and have a relatively low intensive level use of land, therefore, more indicators should be distributed to small and medium-sized cities; instead, big cities have a relatively intensive use of land and high GDP yield of unit land, therefore construction land for big cities, especially megacities, should be controlled. In January of this year, the Ministry required no new construction land should be arranged to megacities with a population of above 5 million in principle except land for life.
China has a relatively small place and large population, therefore strictest land protection system has been implemented continuously for many years -- China has pledged to keep 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land, an amount considered as a "red line" minimum to ensure food security. The Central Government, through overall planning of land use, defines the size, layout, structure and scheduling of construction land of local governments and implements total quantity control of construction land. Under this system, the construction land of different places is uneven. Although Beijing, Shanghai and other metropolises with very high land pressure and population density ranking top among the country, a large number of cultivated land is still retained. By the end of 2013, Shanghai still has 3 million hectares of cultivated land. In this case, in 2014, the residential land supply of Shanghai decreases 30% than that in 2013, which is just over 10,000 acres.
What is intensive land use? A farmer in rural areas can enjoy 330m2 (half an acre) of homestead, while the construction land per capita in central city of Ordos is only 150m2, which is less than half the original. It is intensive use of land to settle from rural areas to urban areas. In Shanghai, the construction land per capita needs only 130m2 (3,070km2 of construction land, 24 million people), which is much higher than the land per capita in central city of Shanghai. Therefore, it is intensive use of land from Ordos to Shanghai and from small and medium-sized cities to big cities.
China has more people in East and less people in West; a higher population density in big cities and a lower population density in small cities. Shanghai is certain to have higher output, highest carrying population and higher land use efficiency for the same 1km2. The normal land use planning should be the land going with the population: where the population goes, where should be distributed with higher land-use permit. More people moves from the rural areas to urban areas and from small and medium-sized cities to big cities, which brings a huge amount of second plowing land and saving of land-use permit. This is true intensive use of land.
However, since 2005, more land-use permits have been distributed to Midwest and small and medium-sized cities in China. The result is that industrial development zone is unused, ghost towns with no people are formed and urban construction fund is wasted. What is in striking contrast with this is that Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities have intense tension in land supply, high price of residential house, which causes the young people can not afford the house, commercial cost remains high and companies are forced to retreat. Maybe the Central Government has good initial intention, hoping that young people and entrepreneurs could return to small and medium-sized cities for residence and doing business. However, there are fewer employment opportunities and indifferent commercial awareness, which severely restricts the development of individuals and enterprises, and it is also loss of efficiency for the whole society to make them go from big cities to small and medium-sized cities.
Under the Ministry, governments of all layers disperse construction land-use permits at all levels to guide the development of economy and society. However, how does the government gain an insight into the future prior to the market? The facts prove that the governments of all layers fail to achieve more efficiency in resources allocation through land supply plan, which, instead, causes artificial supply shortage and waste. The documents of the Ministry this time points out a very important phenomenon: the small and medium-sized cities have extensive use of land and severe waste, but a wrong solution is given. More construction land-use permits should be given to big cities and megacities, which is really in line with the initial intention of policy -- economical and intensive use of land.
Published in Southern Metropolis Daily | 2014-6-26
