Low-rent housing for 7.47m
- Source: The Global Times
- [23:36 June 02 2009]
- Comments
By Wang Xinyuan
Low-rent houses being constructed in Shanghai. Photo: Image China
The government has issued plans to help 7.47 million low-income families have access to low-rent housing by 2011.
A low-rent housing project for 2009-2011 was jointly announced Monday by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, National Development and Reform Commission, and Ministry of Finance (MOF).
A total of 7.47 million low-income households will benefit from the project.
The plan stated that 5.18 million units of low-rent housing will be built from 2009 to 2011. Government subsidies will be available for 1.91 million low-income households and 380,000 units of low-rent houses that began construction late last year will also be made available.
The projects will accommodate low-income families experiencing housing difficulties and will be built among all types of residential areas. A low-rent house is defined as approximately 13 square meters a person and 50 square meters a unit.
“The key is to ensure that the only extremely poor people have access to the low-rent houses,” Liu Weixin, a researcher at China Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
Only those who cannot afford rent and who live on government allowances should be entitled to the new homes, added Liu. “Otherwise it will be like affordable houses that were aimed at helping mid and low-income families but were actually sold to many high-income individuals,” he said.
Liu said that 40 percent of affordable houses in Huilongguan and Tiantongyuan, in the northern outskirts of Beijing, built for low to mid-income earners, were currently for rent instead of being lived in.
The eligibility of low-income families able to access low-rent houses is currently determined by local government and municipalities.
In Beijing, personal monthly income below 697 yuan ($102) gives eligibility for an application to live in a low-rent house, Cheng Jianhua, an official with Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, was reported by the Beijing News as saying.
In Shanghai, people with an average monthly income below 800 yuan ($117) and living in homes under seven square meters can apply.
“The income gap between eastern, central and western regions is so huge that it is impossible to unify a national standard,” explained Liu. He said standard setting should be delegated to local governments and that the execution of the plan was very important.
The actual amount of government subsidies will be based on average rental in local housing markets and the income of households.
Earnings from social housing funds and 10 percent of the net income of land transfer will be used for the construction of the low-rent homes.
To encourage building of low-rent accommodation in low-income areas, the central government will compensate 400 yuan ($59) a square meter for the western region, 300 yuan ($44) for central China and 200 yuan ($29) for Liaoning, Shandong and F u j i a n provinces.
The MOF stated that the central government had allocated an additional 6 billion yuan ($878 million) to fund the building projects, following 7 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) that was allocated in April.