Talent grab has opened doors for speculators

IT IS ESTIMATED that around 8.2 million people will graduate from college this year. And more than 20 cities have issued favorable policies to attract fresh graduates over the past two months. Beijing News comments:

The heated talent competition not only involves second-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Wuhan and Xi’an, but also the first-tier city Tianjin, which has removed almost all its restrictive conditions to college graduates, as long as they are below 40 years old.

And almost all of the cities are generous in providing housing subsidies to talents they need for certain industries.

That hundreds of thousands of people have obtained local hukou, or household registration, in these cities shows how successful these talent policies have been.

But the local governments concerned need to conduct more thorough investigations into the data, and analyze the reasons why people are keen to become a local resident even before they find a job.

According to media reports, people want to obtain a city hukou for two reasons: to secure a seat in a public school for their children and to be eligible

to buy a house in the city. Few of those interviewed said they moved to a city for their career or business.

It is noteworthy that the housing price in some cities has soared abruptly after local governments opened the doors to newcomers, and it is believed there are many house speculators among the new residents, who apply for hukou only to speculate on the rise of house prices.

For example, the average house price in Xi’an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, rose 11.2 percent in April compared with March after the city government lowered the threshold for acquiring local hukou.

Local governments should avoid such unwanted side effects from the introduction of policies to attract talents, which will only aggravate the financial burden on the real economy and do nothing to improve their business environments.