Ensuring the housing supply for low and middle-income families
will remain a government priority next year, officials said.
Government leaders at the recent Central Economic Work
Conference urged faster construction of low-rent housing, and
improved and standardized economy housing to make it more
affordable for urban low-income families.
Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this month that construction of
low-rent housing would be an important means to evaluate local
government performance.
A source from the Ministry of Construction said it is currently
working on a new housing rule.
"It will still take some time to finish the draft, but the
framework is almost done," the source was quoted as saying by the
21st Century Business Herald. "The draft rule will be
submitted to the State Council for approval next year."
According to Xu Zongwei, deputy director of the construction
ministry's legal department, low-income families are the main
concern of the new rule, which follows the guidelines of Circular
24.
The government issued the circular on August 13, aiming to make
housing available at low rents or provide subsidies. The government
plans to cover basic housing in large and medium-sized cities by
the end of this year, then to tackle low-income families across the
country by 2010.
The draft rule, experts said, will legalize the requirements of
Circular 24 and make clear the responsibilities of government
departments implementing it.
But the rule does not cover housing for middle-income families.
As property prices climb there have been calls to address the
difficulties of middle-income families, who believe they have been
left out of the housing system.
Prices of new residential apartments in the country rose by 10.6
percent year-on-year in October, according to statistics from the
National Development and Reform Commission.
"Buying a property in Beijing is an ambitious goal for me," said
Liu Qi, a 30-year-old company executive with an annual income of
around 40,000 yuan. "I am not entitled to economy housing, and I
can't afford a commercial apartment."
According to Beijing's latest regulation, only families with
annual incomes lower than 22,700 yuan can apply for economy
housing. Meanwhile, it is almost impossible to find an apartment
for less than 10,000 yuan per sq m within Beijing's Fifth Ring
Road.
Tang Jun, secretary-general of the policy research center at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said low-rent homes would not
ease housing pressure for most people.
Statistics show that around 10 million low-income families are
covered by Circular 24, accounting for 5.6 percent of all the
families in China. Urban middle-income families make up 20 percent
of the nation's total.
Premier Wen Jiabao said in Singapore last month that China's
middle class would also be an important aspect of its affordable
housing program.
(China Daily December 13, 2007)
