Ministry, governments to go on affordable rental housing drive
By Li Hongyang | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2022-02-24 18:03
China's top housing authority will build more government-subsidized rental apartments this year to provide cheaper houses to young people in big cities.
Wang Menghui, the Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development told a news conference on Thursday that the ministry plans to build a further 2.4 million subsidized units nationwide.
"We aim to address the housing problem facing young people and new urban residents," he said, adding that last year, 942,000 subsidized rental units, accommodating about 3 million people were built in 40 cities.
Ni Hong, the vice-minister, said at the conference organized by the State Council Information Office that the ministry will help local governments build more affordable rental properties.
"Governments of cities with a large influxes of people are more willing to implement favorable policies on land, finance and taxation for such construction.
"For example, Beijing used land in its rural areas to build affordable housing. Shanghai encouraged research institutes and universities to use idle land to build such apartments," he said.
"If young people are at ease, the city will have a good future. So it is necessary to address the housing problems they face to improve the competitiveness of cities and achieve sustainable development," Ni said.
He said that Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong province's Guangzhou and Shenzhen and other big cities have increased the proportion of affordable rentals to more than 40 percent of the new housing supply.
