Tomb sales require hukou, land prices skyrocket

Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, reaffirmed the restrictions on tomb sales, adding to the debate over tomb prices after millions of Chinese went tomb- sweeping during the Qingming Festival holidays.

All private cemeteries in Suzhou are only allowed to sell tombs to local residents to make better use of limited resources, Suzhou Civil Affairs Bureau stressed in a recent meeting.

The bureau said it will also strictly restrict the size of new tombs in the city to 0.7 square meters per tomb, and tombs for two people to one square meter, according to a notice on the bureau’s website.

The restrictive measures started in 2014, which have since been expanded in Suzhou.

People who have to purchase tombs in Suzhou but do not have a hukou, or household registration, for that city should get the approval of the civil affairs department in the district where the cemetery is located, the regulation states.

Many people from Shanghai have being purchasing tombs in Suzhou, where tombs are much cheaper, and some Shanghai buyers are born in the city, Shanghai- based newspaper Jiefang Daily reported.

The Suzhou’s civil affairs bureau estimated in 2015 that tombs available in the city would be sold out within five years, said the report.

The regulation also bans the purchase of tombs for people who are still alive despite a habit of purchasing a tomb before death, which has triggered a rise in tomb prices.

The average tomb price in Suzhou is 30,000 yuan ($ 4,350) per square meter, reaching as high as 120,000 yuan per square meter in Suzhou, Jiefang Daily reported.

Home prices in Suzhou average 21,110 yuan per square meter in February, the Legal Daily reported on Saturday.

Similar restrictions have been implemented in Shunde, South China’s Guangdong Province since 2013 by charging people without a local hukou three times the price local residents pay, Nandu Daily reported.

Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the governments “have no other choice,” as tomb prices, as well as home prices, have been rising from speculation.

“In a long run, the government should increase the land for tombs,” Hu said.

Hu also said that Chinese people should change their taste in opulence and funerals, which is a great waste of resources and increases tomb prices.