“House-for-pension” scheme also known as reverse mortgage is used in many countries nowadays. An interest to this model is increasing in Chinese society too. But is “house-for-pension” scheme really suitable for China? In the present paper possible options related to "house for pension" scheme adaptation to the Chinese conditions have been analyzed, and a conclusion that the similar model doesn´t suit China has been drawn. Chinese pension system still needs for state budget support as a main source of financing, and for using of traditional pension provision. “House-for-pension” scheme will be able become a supplement source of financing only in the future.
“house-for-pension”, reverse mortgage, traditional pension system,legitimacy.
Reverse mortgage is a financial product means old homeowners mortgaging house property to the insurance company or bank, and keeping the right of using the house, lending institution access to the house value; then the insurance company or bank pays money to the borrower based on the net value of the house;1when the borrower dies or the appointed time arrives, lending institution obtains ownership of the house which had mortgaged, and disposal it to compensate for their cash outlay. Because such a system makes the contrary with the traditional mortgage, it is called reverse mortgage.
On July 1, 2014, the house-for-pension insurance policies was implemented for the first time in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan four pilot cities. But it was cold at the beginning, no insurance company or bank launch house-for-pension insurance product on the market, and only XingFu insurance company completed product research and development and reported it to China Insurance Regulatory Commission. “House-orpension” previously had been never tried in China. In 2005, Tangshan Nanjing “Wen Quan Liu Yuan” nursing home was the first institution which implemented it in China. During the operation, because of the lack of credit only a few businesses applied, and finally the idea failed because of economic disputes. In 2007, Shanghai Housing Fund Management Center launched the “selfhelp housing pension” project. After three years of operation, because of the fact that the most of old people could not accept the project that housing property should be sold to the housing fund management center at the beginning, the pilot project was forced to stop, and had “no recovered schedule”. Also in 2007, the Beijing Hengda Real Estate Brokerage Co., Ltd. and Beijing ShouShan-FuHai International Pension Service Center jointly launched the “pension house bank”. However, because of business organizations’ lack of credit and the business scope restrictions, the business had operated just six months and stopped then. In 2008, Hangzhou Shanghu Qu Hubin Street introduced four alternative “House-forpension” models. The situation was similar — old people did not want to lose their house property right or choose “good room-for-poor room” plan, only a few old people had chosen “rent-for-pension”.
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