CRI听力：Low-rent Housing System to Cover 10 Million Urbanites

China's low-rent housing system is to be expanded to cover another 10 million people on low-incomes by the end of 2010.

The country's vice-minister of construction, Qi Ji, has announced details of the new measures which include rebuilding shanty towns.

Our reporter Dan Dan has more.

Reporter:

Housing is directly related to people's livelihood. For some low-income families residing in urban areas however, family members have less than 10 square meters each in which to live.

Qi Ji introduced that currently there are around 10 million such families across the country. He says local governments will multiple their efforts to provide these families with adequate housing.

"We're going to build more affordable apartments and reconstruct shantytowns and old residential areas. Local governments are set to earmark funds for low-rent housing in their budgets, and at least 10 percent of the proceeds from land transfer should be used for low-rent housing."

The official added that local proceeds from public housing provident funds should also be invested in the building of low-rent apartments.

Although the country still has to strive to improve its low-rent housing system, Qi Ji says major achievements have been made in this sector since the late 1970s.

"In 1978 when China's reform and opening-up policies were first adopted, the average housing area for urbanite was 6.7 square meters. In 1998, the figure almost doubled to 18.7 square meters, thanks to a housing allocation reform, which was put into practice in the late 1980s. Finally, at the end of last year, the figure stood at 27 square meters."

Last weekend, at a national conference on urban housing, Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan called on local governments to stabilize housing prices and boost the healthy development of the real estate market.

He said recent price hikes for apartments had negatively impacted on the interests of the public.

Housing prices in seventy major Chinese cities rose by a record 7.5 percent in July from the same month last year.

One industry group has predicted that housing prices in Chinese cities will continue to rise in the third quarter this year, despite the government pledging to make housing more affordable for low-income families.

Dan Dan, CRI news.