Small-and-medium sized houses became hot commodities in the first half of this year, with buyers having more choices for economic living places, according to National Development and Reform Commission statistics revealed on July 31.

Completed investments for dwellings under less than 90 square meters accounted for 19.5 percent of the total volume.

As for economic houses, designed for low-income earners, they took 4.2 percent of the completed investment share in the first half of this year, marking a 34.4 percent a year-on-year spike.

The Ministry of Construction held a designing campaign at the end of last year seeking to lower sky-high costs on building small-and-medium sized houses.

Total completed investment for commercial housing reached 695.5 billion yuan in the first half of this year, representing a vast 30.8 percent year on year rise.

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin, August 3, 2007)