国内英语新闻:China speeds up affordable housing construction to set low-income people at ease

Changzhou is not the only city to speed up construction of affordable housing for low-income residents. The Beijing government vowed to build or purchase 134,000 units of welfare housing in 2010, and the Shanghai government pledged to build 700,000 welfare apartments by 2012.

China's real estate market has undergone a substantial upswing in the past two years. A report released by the China Academy of Social Science showed average home prices in China rose 25.1 percent year on year in 2009, outpacing the annual income growth of urban residents by 15.3 percentage points.

Reckless property price surges have shattered many people's dream of owning a private residence, and limited access to affordable housing has worsened living conditions for the urban poor, including migrant workers, the newly employed, and low-income families, said Gao Bo, director with the Real Estate Research Center of Nanjing University.

TV dramas and news stories regarding home prices have always been eye-catching and triggered heated discussions, which reflects the public's great longing for affordable housing, Gao said.

At the beginning of this year, the central government set a target of building 5.8 million units of affordable housing in 2010, a move meant to dampen the red-hot real property markets while working to solve living problems for the urban poor.

In a bid to better finance the program, the central government has selected 28 cities, such as Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing, to pilot low-income housing construction with loans supported by the housing public accumulation fund system.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, a total of 133 projects covering affordable housing, rebuilding shanty areas and public rental housing have been approved as pilot projects in this initiative, with the total amount of loans reaching around 49.3 billion yuan.

During an inspection tour to Changzhou city on Aug. 22, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang urged officials to adopt a realistic approach to affordable housing construction, requiring local government to diversify fund raising channels, arrange for sufficient land supplies, and ensure transparency and fairness in the distribution of affordable housing.

According to a regulation released in July, public-rental housing in Jiangsu Province will be made available to be rented for 8 to 10 years, which will considerably alleviate living pressures for new graduates, said Changzhou Mayor Wang Weicheng.