Individuals have become the major home buyers in Shanghai, one of the most prosperous cosmopolitans in China.

In the first half of the year, the city sold houses with a total floor space of 9.996 million square meters, up 24.7 percent from a year earlier.

Statistics show that 84,136 houses and apartments were sold to individuals, accounting for 95.9 percent of the total, up 2.3 percentage points from the same period of last year.

China's enterprises and institutions used to distribute houses to their employees, but under the distribution system, which was usually based on experience and rank, ordinary young couples had to wait a long time for their own home.

In late 1998, the Chinese central government announced it would stop the practice of housing distribution, saying that each worker must buy his or her own home.

The government has carried out a series of housing reforms that encourage individuals to buy houses and apartments, and the banks have extended loans to individual house buyers.

(Eastday.com.cn 07/29/2001)