Public concern over land-use rights in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, has prompted official media to call for a clear legal framework concerning home ownership. Hundreds of homeowners in Wenzhou face uncertainty as their 20-year land-use leases approach expiration. Local authorities have reportedly asked them to pay hundreds of thousands of yuan to renew each 20-year land lease on 70-year terms or risk losing ownership. In China, the government retains ownership of the land on which all houses are built. Individuals may own a house, but must lease the land itself from the government. Since the commercialization of the property market in the 1990s, residential properties have been built based on land-use leases ranging from 20 to 70 years. The shortest leases, such as those in Wenzhou, are now coming up for renewal. The issue has arisen at a time that property prices in major cities such as Shanghai are surging, with some homeowners paying up to CNY5 million for a two-bedroom home. Millions of homeowners are watching what happens in Wenzhou fearing that their own property investments could be questioned when their leases expire. The official Xinhua News Agency said that a blurry definition of home ownership could potentially cause social unrest. “It doesn’t make sense if homeowners or their offspring are required to pay further millions of yuan to continue to own their houses,” said Shen Ye, 42, a Shanghai homeowner. “The question could be answered when China officially starts imposing property tax,” said Joe Zhou, JLL’s Director of Research in China. “With the property tax, homeowners can continue to own their houses and automatically renew the land-use agreement after 70 years as long as they continue to pay the tax,” the South China Morning Post reports.