To have and to hold, at least until real estate do us part

A man inspects a property model display in Rizhao, Shandong province, on Jun 14, 2014 . [Photo provided to China Daily]

DATA FROM THE BEIJING CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU show the number of divorces in the city reached 97,600 in 2016, 73 percent higher than the number in 2014. At the same time, the number of couples getting remarried reached 22,607, 131 percent higher than in 2014. Ifeng.com comments:

This situation has much to do with the housing market. There is no exact data, but quite a lot of couples still live together after getting a divorce. The only difference is that after divorcing they are no longer couples registered by the law.

This phenomenon can be attributed to market policies. For instance, there are many reported cases of people divorcing in order to benefit from lower interest rates for new mortgage loans. And being two individuals rather than a couple means they can buy two properties rather than one.

The long-term effect of such a phenomenon on society remains to be seen, but too frequent divorces and resumed relations of divorced couples challenge the traditional value put on marriage. From a broader perspective, this may also have a negative influence on social order and stability.

If people can gain benefits from the housing policies by divorcing, and the policies encourage them to do so, then surely the policies need to be looked at and amended.

Worse, some realty agencies reportedly help customers take advantage of such policy loopholes. The negative effects of these real estate policy loopholes cannot be ignored.

Policymakers should take into consideration people's real needs when drawing up realty policies, so as to avoid shortsightedness because they failed to investigate the real situation in the market thoroughly enough.