Low-income group's housing a problem

The economy housing policy is aimed at solving the housing problem of low-income earners. Economy apartments and low-rent houses both have their advantages and disadvantages, says an article in China Business News. Excerpts:

Economy apartments (for sale) and low-rent housing are the two main parts of China's housing policy for the low-income group.

Affordable houses are being built for some years now but have been caught up in some problems that are not easy to overcome. A large number of these problems are related to paying rents and lack of supervision. Hence, administrative departments have proposed to intensify verification of tenants and homebuyers, streamline distribution and strengthen supervision.

But "strengthening supervision" sounds hollow when one thinks where will all the funds come to pay for the large number of extra civil servants needed to supervise the complex process of examination, verification and distribution of affordable houses.

Low-rent houses are like a breath of fresh air for poor people, and can solve the housing problem of urban low- and medium-income families without interfering with market prices.

But compared with economy apartments that have to be bought, low-rent houses pose a problem because they demand investments without corresponding returns. The government has to just allocate a piece of land to build economy apartments, but it has to spend a lot of money to construct low-rent houses.

That means the government has two choices when it comes to solving the low-income group's housing problem: Using more human resources to supervise economy housing, or spend more money to build low-rent houses.

(China Daily 08/26/2009 page9)