Some Beijing residents are hoping they’ll be getting a little lucky soon. That’s as the municipal government opened a lottery on Monday for nearly 1,900 low cost housing units in eight buildings. One hundred and sixty five thousand people have applied for the affordable apartments.

These apartments cannot be used for investment or speculation purposes as they are not allowed to be flipped by their new owners. The lottery apartments cost 30 percent less than those available at market prices. The lottery aims to ease the strain on the supply of low-cost homes in Beijing. Over 8 million square meters of new construction opened in the past five months, a drop of 28-percent versus from a year ago. In the meantime, the amount of square meters of commercial homes sold fell 35-percent on the year.