Low-rent housing will be a key part of the government's real
estate policy this year, an official from the Ministry of
Construction said yesterday.
"I would like to sum up the feature of this year's policy as
steady, advance and strengthened implementation," Qin Hong, deputy
director of the Policy Research Center of the Ministry of
Construction, said at the Sina Real Estate Forum yesterday.
The central government said last year that 5 percent of land-use
fees should be directed to build low-rent housing. According to
2005 figures, 5 percent could translate into 10.9 billion yuan
(US$1.41 billion) that could help ease the demand for houses for
low-income families, Qin said.
"But how much of them could really be in place?" she asked,
adding that local governments should play key roles.
In his address to the National People's Congress last month,
Premier Wen Jiabao promised to finance low-rent housing
and increase the availability of affordable housing using fiscally
sound tax policies.
By the end of last year, 274 cities in China had a low-rent
system in place. However, there is a need to balance the housing
flow across various regions.
"More policies are in the pipeline to balance the regional
differences," said Qin, adding the 5 percent of land-use fees from
out-of-the-way areas could hardly support the construction of
low-rent homes.
Meanwhile, shrinking the gap between demand and supply remains
the focus of this year's real estate policy, said Gu Yunchang,
vice-chairman of China Real Estate and Housing Research
Institution.
Due to the soaring economy and ballooning wallets, demand for
housing improvements is growing fast. Meanwhile, the present
limited investment channels have also fuelled people's desire to
invest in property that has helped to boost demand.
However, skyrocketing demand and shrinking supply have driven up
China's property prices despite measures to cool things down.
March property prices in the country's 70 large and medium-sized
cities saw a jump of 5.9 percent compared to one year ago. There
was also a growth rate of 0.6 percentage points higher than
February, the National Development and Reform Commission said
yesterday.
Beihai, Shenzhen, Changsha, Beijing and Guangzhou are among the
top five in terms of the price hike.
"To reduce the gap, we shall increase the supply of small-sized
apartments and expand investment channels through financial
innovation," Gu said.
According to a regulation from nine ministers last May,
apartments smaller than 90 sq m shall account for 70 percent of
residential supplies.
However, in the first quarter of 2007, the investment in those
small-scale apartments accounted for just 16.1 percent, the
commission said in a report on Monday.
(China Daily April 18, 2007)