Successful urbanization not just homebuying

AN INCREASING NUMBER OF RURAL RESIDENTS in Central and West China have chosen to settle in nearby counties as a result of the preferential property purchasing policies. China Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

The trend of rural residents buying homes in small cities is supposed to be a win-win outcome. Against the backdrop of the nationwide urbanization, many less developed cities aspiring to jump on the bandwagon have built plenty of cheap housing to attract investors and homebuyers, but these have turned out to be few.

As they struggle to reduce the property glut, the local governments provide favorable policies for purchasing the newly built houses, which are particularly popular among local rural dwellers eyeing urban resources such as better schools and hospitals.

However, the infrastructure and public facilities in these small cities have not kept pace with the expansion of these cities.

This has created problems ranging from traffic jams and inefficient waste disposal to urban flooding.

The dilemma facing both urban and rural governance has a lot to do with the flawed approach to addressing the urban housing glut. Successful urbanization, in the eyes of many local governments, is only about building houses and selling them.

That has missed the target of promoting urbanization, which in essence aims at granting rural residents equal access to quality urban resources, not luring them to cities without offering them sufficient public services.

Only a limited number of rural residents enjoy the luxury of resettling in metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai, and those left behind yet craving a taste of better life should be given fairer access to quality public services too.