Vice Minister:China to Spend 1.3 Trillion Yuan on Affordable Housing

A senior housing official now says the Chinese government plans to spend more than one trillion yuan to build low-income homes this year, while at the same time, making low-income housing a priorty for local governments.

Our Shuang Feng has the details.

Property prices have been rising rapidly in most Chinese cities in recent years, making homes unaffordable for the average person.

Despite some local governments' tightening policies, new home prices are still on the rise.

In January, all but two of 70 cities monitored by the government have seen price increases.

The situation is drawing increased attention from the central government, which is continuing to promise adequate housing for everyone.

Qi Ji, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, says the central authorities are going to invest 1.3 trillion yuan, to build 10 million affordable homes this year.

Speaking on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing, Qi is pressing local governments to take the task seriously.

"Local governments are required to include the construction of welfare housing into their own budgets this year. The most important thing is that they must invest no less than 10 percent of their net revenue of land sales in the welfare housing project."

Qi says both the central and local governments together will provide 500 billion yuan for the low-income housing project, while public institutions and businesses will contribute the rest.

He says the central government also plans to tighten its monitoring of the performance of local governments in stabilizing housing prices.

"We will ask local officials to report on their work and regularly check their performance in controlling local housing prices and building welfare homes. Those who fail to exercise their duties will be held accountable."

Skyrocketing housing prices are now one of the chief complaints in China.

In his government work report delivered at the annual legislative sessions still taking place in Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao has repeated a pledge to keep housing prices affordable, while at the same time, says the central authorities are going to keep up their price controls this year.

For CRI, I'm Shuang Feng.