Chinese couples getting divorced to protect their ‘oversized properties’

Thanks to a new regulation on rural housing by the Chinese city government of Guiyang, the residents have to get divorced to keep their houses.

Thanks to a new regulation on rural housing by the Chinese city government of Guiyang, the residents have to get divorced to keep their houses.

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According to the regulation, rural and residential properties built on collective land should not be more than 240 suare metres per household.

Couples in Guiyang city are scrambling to get divorced following this rule.

Xie Qingtong, a 58-year-old farmer in Da’ao village, in Yunyan district, Guiyang, said he had no choice but to divorce his wife, Zeng Lihong, in November. They got divorced to protect the 500-square-metre house they built seven years ago, reported Global Times Friday.

“No one wants to do this, but we really have no choice,” the couple was quoted by the China News Weekly magazine as saying. The decision to divorce took place after the new regulation on housing was announced August 28 by the city government of Guiyang.The regulation covers 1,313 villages in Guiyang.

“After divorce, one family becomes two and the housing size permitted by the authorities is also doubled,” Xie explained. “We just followed the torrent of divorces.” Xie is not alone. A week after the regulation was published, rural residents rushed to marriage registration halls to split up from their loved ones to protect their “oversized” properties.

The divorcees included couples who had only been married for two or three months as well as those in their 80s and 90s.

In fact, the daily reported that couples left the halls cheerfully after they were issued with the dark green divorce certificate.