Housing construction will be sped up to meet the huge demands on domestic market in China in the coming five to 10 years, the Ministry of Construction predicts.

A plan by the ministry calls for each urban resident to obtain 22 square meters of housing on average. Individual consumption of housing will make up 15 percent of the total.

The urbanization rate will increase by 36 percent and 86 percent of the urban families will have access to natural gas by 2005.

The central government has also vowed to increase the housing acreage of both urban and rural residents and improve the quality of houses in its 10th five-year plan (2001-2005).

The housing industry will increase, said Xie Jiajin, director of the Housing and Real Estate Industry Department of the Ministry of Construction, adding that the Chinese people are catering to individual purchases on houses, instead of getting houses from their work units; house transactions and investment will be more active.

(Eastday.com 11/26/2000)