Since the mid-1990s, 80 percent of China's public housing has been sold to local residents, Vice-Minister of Construction Liu Zhifeng told the International Conference on Financing Social Housing, held recently in Baotou, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Liu said a housing investment and purchase system featuring proportional contributions from the State, enterprises and individuals has been established gradually. Market forces have played an increasingly significant role in coordinating housing resources.

As China's social housing system develops, a growing number of people, especially in urban areas, will purchase their own houses with a combination of funds they accumulate themselves, the equivalent amount paid by their work units for housing, and bank loans.

The latest statistics from the People's Bank of China show that housing loans issued by China's commercial banks in 2001 were 32.55 times those in 1997.

Housing loans issued by domestic financial institutions totaled 663 billion yuan (US$80 billion) by the end of June. Housing loans have become a critical part of the credit consumption of the Chinese people.

Moreover, a recent survey shows that 48 percent of Chinese citizens plan to purchase or swap houses in the next couple of years.

Sixty-seven percent of the people who have bought public housing want to improve their living conditions by purchasing new residences or exchanging houses.

Low-rent or free housing used to be one of the benefits provided by the State or State-owned enterprises before the country launched its opening-up and reform.

But the cost of the system made it increasingly hard for governments at all levels to build more and better houses. It became a headache for city residents to find suitable housing.

The central government began to reform the housing system back in the mid-1980s by selling luxury houses at market prices, by providing middle-income families with cheaper housing, and by accommodating low-income residents in low-rent apartments.

Governments at all levels have provided various preferential schemes to improve living conditions in the world's most populous country.

Developers of affordable housing can enjoy 21 tax-reduction and exemption programs if they keep their profit margins below 3 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2002)