(Yicai Global) Aug. 22 -- Shanghai has made it easier for migrants who work in Lingang Special Area, a special economic space in the city's free trade zone, and who are classified as 'talent' by local government departments, to buy their first homes in the area.

Talent working in Lingang Special Area who do not have Shanghai household registration can buy an apartment in Lingang if they have paid income tax or social security premiums in the city for at least a year, and the property’s ownership can be transferred seven years after purchase, the government said today, citing a document dated Aug. 17.

Migrant workers without household registration in the city previously needed to pay at least three years of income tax or social security premiums before being eligible to buy a home in Lingang. The period is at least five years for those try to buy properties in downtown Shanghai.

“Lingang Special Area is the area in Shanghai with the most preferential, most powerful, and most independent talent introduction policy,” according to Ye Linlin, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

The number of people working in Lingang who are recognized as talent reached 900,000 over the past three years, including over 210 high-level talent and experts and more than 1,500 overseas talent, according to statistics.

Lingang will create 180,000 new jobs over the next three years to build a “city for entrepreneurs and a home for employees,” the area’s chief administrator Chen Jinshan said at a press conference on Aug. 20.

Talent has become the main driving force of the area's development, Chen said, adding that high-level basic education, medical care, culture, sports, and other urban needs are being constantly upgraded.

Lingang’s economic output has grown by an average 21 percent a year since it was set up on Aug. 20, 2019. The annual output growth of local industrial companies above a designated size was 40 percent, and that of fixed asset investment was 43 percent. Imports and exports of the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Area in Lingang rose an average 28 percent a year.

The Covid-19 outbreak in the first half of the year did not affect the high-speed development of the area. The total output value of local industrial firms jumped 27 percent from a year earlier, with a 23 percent increase in fixed asset investment. In the first seven months of 2022, income taxes collected form the area climbed 28 percent from a year ago.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Futura Costaglione