The latest figures from the Beijing Bureau of Statistics show that the capital built 3.06 million square meters of affordable houses in 2004 which helped lower the city's average commercial housing price by 278 yuan (US$33.5).

The bureau acknowledged that the price of the city's affordable houses averaged at 2,953 yuan (US$356) per square meter in 2004, compared with the average commercial housing price of 4,747 yuan (US$572).

Although the floor space of the affordable houses sold in Beijing accounted for just 13 percent of the city's total commercial residential houses, said officials from the bureau, it played an effective role in balancing the housing prices of the municipality. The average housing price in Beijing rose by only 6.5 percent in 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2005)