More residents will soon qualify for the city's budget home program, after the government raised the minimum threshold for applicants.

Under the new rating, families of three or more members with a monthly disposable income of no more than 3,300 yuan (US$506) per head and financial assets of no more than 120,000 yuan per head qualify for budget home applications.

That compares to the current criteria of 2,900 yuan and 90,000 yuan respectively, which has been in effect since last August.

For single and two-member households, the per-head monthly disposable income and financial asset threshold is 10 percent higher, Pang Yuan, vice director of the Shanghai Municipal Housing Support and Building Administration Bureau, said yesterday.

Other criteria, - such as that applicants must have lived in the city for seven years, including five years in the same district - remain unchanged.

"The city has been accelerating the pace of budget home construction in recent years and by the end of this year the supply is expected to reach 5 million square meters - or 80,000 units," Pang said. "This has allowed us to extend the program."

The new thresholds will come into effect for the next round of applications, scheduled to begin by the end of June, Pang said.

The city is planning for 15 million square meters of affordable housing by 2015.