How to Divide the Value of a Publicly-owned House in Divorce
How to Divide the Value of a Publicly-owned House in Divorce
Publicly-owned house is a special form of title over real estate. It is the product of China’s housing reformation from housing distribution by government or employer to commercial trading. The most important feature of such a house is partial public ownership, which means the purchaser will be granted only partial ownership. And such ownership is only applicable to elderly people under the traditional economic system.
Currently, those people who are entitled to such welfare benefits may purchase such publicly-owned houses at very low prices. If man and/or wife make payments when the parents of either of them purchase such a house according to the welfare policy, and the house is registered in the name of such parents, neither the man nor his wife may claim to divide the ownership of the house due to the special nature of ownership.
Then how can they divide the payments they have made to purchase such a house?
In such a case, they can only divide the value, rather than the ownership, of the house, which means that the payments made by each spouse to purchase the house may be deemed as a debt payable to such spouse by the other. In addition, such a house may not be sold at market price within five years of registration of its ownership according to the policy. Therefore, selling such a house to obtain proceeds for division is almost infeasible and is highly risky.
Robert Zhang 
Steve Li 