Urban residents with hukou who want to live in the countryside can only rent rural houses — they must not buy homestead land or houses on it
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People with urban hukou must not go to the countryside to buy homestead land (宅基地), farmers’ houses, or “small-property-rights houses” (小产权房) — national documents expressly forbid it. A villager saying “a written contract is enough” does not make it work either. To live long-term in the countryside, sign a lease, at most 20 years per term, and renew when it ends.
- Cost
- No monetary cost. The trade-off is that the house is not yours; the maximum single lease term is 20 years, and when it ends you renegotiate with the landlord.
- Benefit
- A State Council General Office document states clearly: “Urban residents must not purchase rural homestead land, farmer housing, or ‘small-property-rights houses.’” The same document also provides that after a farmer sells or leases out housing, a further application for homestead land will not be approved. A 2019 document from the Central Rural Work Leading Group Office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs repeats it: “It is strictly forbidden for urban residents to purchase rural homestead land.” The same document gives the lawful path: urban residents may rent rural houses for residence or business. The lease term must not exceed 20 years; when it ends the parties may agree again.
- Notes
- Homestead land is land the village allocates to its own villagers to build housing; it can only go to people of that village. When renting a rural house, sign a written contract with the farming household that rents it out, stating the term, the rent, whether renovation or alteration is allowed, and how renovation costs are settled at the end. The documents cap the term at 20 years; do not sign “lease for 50 years” or “lease for 70 years,” and do not pay many years of rent in one lump sum. The documents also forbid going to the countryside to build villas, large compounds, and private clubs on homestead land; do not put up money for villagers to “co-build.”
Sources · 2
- 国务院办公厅 (2007). 关于严格执行有关农村集体建设用地法律和政策的通知（国办发〔2007〕71 号）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2008-03/28/content_2…
- 中央农村工作领导小组办公室、农业农村部 (2019). 关于进一步加强农村宅基地管理的通知（中农发〔2019〕11 号）第五、六部分. moa.gov.cn/govpublic/NCJJTZ/201909/t20190920_…