Buying a house in China: only after a year, one home — and the land stays the state's
As a foreigner you may buy one home in China, for your own use, if you work or study there — and the foreign exchange rules ask for a contract of at least a year. You never buy the land: you buy the building on a land-use right of at most seventy years. The deed tax has been mild since December 2024: 1% up to and including 140 square metres, above that 1.5%.
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Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.
Yes, but within limits. A foreigner may buy one home for own use in China, provided they work or study there. In cities with purchase restrictions the local rules come first.
What else you need to know:
- The foreign exchange rules also ask for an employment contract or enrolment of at least a year.
- You never buy the land: that belongs to the state. You buy the building on a land-use right of at most seventy years.
- The deed tax, the tax you pay as the buyer, has been mild since 1 December 2024: 1% up to and including 140 m², 1.5% above that.
The pitfall is the money: whatever you transfer from the Netherlands has to be converted to yuan first, at a bank in the city where the home is.
Who may buy, and how many?
The rules come from three notices by the Ministry of Housing and the foreign exchange regulator SAFE:
| Rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| 2006 (171) | foreigners who have worked or studied in China for more than a year may buy for own use |
| 2010 (186) | one home per person; registration asks for proof of more than a year of work in China and a written declaration that you own no other home |
| 2015 (122) | whoever works or studies in China may buy according to actual need, for own use; in cities with purchase restrictions the local rules apply |
The 2015 notice rewrote the 2006 sentence without the one-year term. The 2010 notice is still in SAFE's policy list, though (republished in July 2025). And the foreign exchange rules still ask for a contract of a year or longer when you convert. So count on that bar, and have the housing registration office of your city confirm what applies there.
Beijing, for example, asks for your passport and a statement on your residence status from the exit-entry department of the police. The city holds you to one home, and does not allow you to let or resell it casually after the purchase. Investing in property is only possible through a company set up for that purpose.
As everywhere: in your first year you don't buy.
What am I actually buying: the building or the land?
Under the Civil Code (article 249), urban land belongs to the state. What comes with a home is a land-use right: the right to use the land for a set period. The regulations of the State Council, China's government, set the longest term for residential land at seventy years.
That term belongs to the land, not to you. Whoever buys an existing home gets the years that are left (article 22 of the regulations). A complex whose right was granted twenty years ago therefore has at most fifty to go.
What happens at the end is regulated in two layers. The old regulations speak of an application for renewal and a new fee. The Civil Code of 2021 says something different for residential land: the right is renewed automatically (article 359), but how payment, reduction or exemption works is left to a law that has yet to come. Ask about the remaining term with older complexes, and factor it into your offer.
What does buying a house cost in tax?
You pay the deed tax as the buyer. It has to be settled before registration: without the payment certificate the registration office refuses to register your ownership. The law sets the rate at 3 to 5 per cent and lets the province choose. But for private individuals a lower rate has applied nationally since 1 December 2024:
| Home | Deed tax |
|---|---|
| up to and including 140 m² | 1% |
| larger than 140 m² | 1.5% |
| legal framework (without the reduction) | 3–5%, per province |
The basis is the price in the contract. If it is low without good reason, the tax authority sets a value itself.
How do you pay with money from the Netherlands?
Convert first, pay after. Money you transfer from outside China or take from your Chinese foreign currency account has to be converted to yuan by the bank first; only then does it go to the developer's yuan account. The bank in the city of the home does this, not a bank elsewhere in the country. It asks for the purchase contract, your passport, an employment contract or enrolment of at least a year, and proof that the purchase has been registered with the housing authority. If it doesn't fit the own-use rule, the bank won't convert.
Whoever buys with a Chinese partner may have the money paid into the partner's account, with proof of the marriage.
Whoever sells later can convert the proceeds in yuan back and transfer them abroad, with the sale contract and proof that the tax on the transfer has been paid. What limits a currency exchange outside a home purchase, you read in bank and payments in China.
How does the purchase hang on your work?
Because the rules start from work or study, your work permit is the key to the housing market: the one-year contract the bank wants to see is the contract your permit rests on. How daily life works beyond that, you read in digital life in China and your first weeks in China.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to China.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- State Taxation Administration — the Deed Tax Law (rate 3–5%, province decides, pay before registration) — fgk.chinatax.gov.cn
- Gov.cn — the reduced deed tax for private home buyers from 1 December 2024 (1% up to and including 140 m², 1.5% above that) — english.www.gov.cn
- Guangdong — notice 建房〔2015〕122号 (whoever works or studies in China may buy for own use; local purchase rules come first) — com.gd.gov.cn
- SAFE Tianjin — notice 建房〔2010〕186号 (one home, proof of more than a year of work, written declaration) — safe.gov.cn
- SAFE — questions and answers on foreign exchange for home purchases (convert first, one-year contract, in the city of the home) — safe.gov.cn
- Beijing — notice on home purchases by foreigners (residence statement, one home, no casual letting) — zjw.beijing.gov.cn
- Civil Code of the People's Republic — urban land belongs to the state (art. 249), residential rights renew automatically (art. 359) — english.www.gov.cn
- State Council — regulations on land-use rights (70 years for housing, art. 12; a buyer takes over the remaining years, art. 22) — fgk.chinatax.gov.cn
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