Public Rental Apartments to be Built for Low- and Middle-Income Households

Cities across China are endeavoring to build a great number of public rental apartments this year. These homes will provide basic shelter for those from low and middle-income households.

Let's take a closer look with reporter Liu Min.

This year, the Chinese government has an ambitious plan to build more apartments for low and middle-income people. Provinces like Heilongjiang have been urged to build as many as 800-thousand homes for urban residents, while the capital city of Beijing has vowed to build a million public rental apartments.Chongqing is the first city in the country to issue public-rental apartments to local residents through a lottery process.

Yang Yanfu, a graduate student who works in Chongqing, is one of the public rental apartment applicants.

"I've noticed that the public rental homes are located quite near to my company, and the community environment is also quite good. More importantly, the rental fee is lower than what it would be if I rented from an individual landlord."

Public rental apartments are a form of government-subsidized housing that can benefit more low and middle-income people. Those with the lowest incomes can apply for low-rent apartments and receive support from the government for rental fees.

Government subsidies also allow some people to buy affordable apartments and enjoy property ownership. Those homes are priced at a much lower level than market prices. But some people do not qualify to enjoy low-rent apartments nor do they have enough money to buy affordable ones. They are a group of urbanites sandwiched between the two categories.

Liu Lan, an official from the Beijing Yongwai Housing Management Office, says more Beijing residents are now applying for public rental housing.

"You can keep living in the public rental homes if you don't want to buy a place. But if later the family's financial ability improves and they want to buy a place, then they could stop living in the public rental apartment."

Beijing is building one million apartments as public rental homes for its residents over the next five years. Chongqing plans to build 40 million square meters of apartment buildings in the next three years to house 2 million low and middle-income residents. That means one-third of the population in Chongqing's urban center can be covered by public rental housing and pay rents that are 40 percent less than that of comparable commercial housing.

In the past, those who have applied for public rental apartments were required to be registered local residents. But now cities like Chongqing and Shanghai have eliminated that requirement.

Zhang Xueqin, Director of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, says more people will benefit from such policies.

"During the upcoming five years, the government will endeavor to provide shelter to low-income households, and at the same time we will focus on building more public rental housing to help low and middle-income families, including those who have just started to work and migrant workers."

At the end of 2010, China had built 370-thousand public rental apartments for those from low and middle-income households. This year 2 million such apartments—six times last year's number—will be built.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.