 |
|
More efforts are made to construct economic housing.
|
The government will continue to regulate land supply for real estate development this year but promised to transfer more to constructeconomical housingfor low-income families, said a cabinet official.
Yuan Xiaosu, vice-minister of land and resources, urged local governments to stop selling land to investors at low prices,in a bidto protect the country's limited land resources.
He said the government would continuously protect primary farmland and prevent misuse and illegaloccupationof farmland so as to ensure the country's grain security.
But Yuan said the government plans to supply more land to construct low-cost housing in an effort to satisfy growing needs and curb rising real estate prices.
"We are still facing the demanding task of regulating land supply in 2006 to keep land and real estate prices stable," Xinhua quoted Yuan as saying.
The task has also challenged Construction Minister Wang Guangtao, who said thatoverheated investmentin the country's real estate sector was basically curbed in 2005.
"More real estate development will use morearable land," said Wang. "That will cause concern over grain safety in turn," he warned.
As China sped up its urbanization and modernization of rural regions, the majority of 1.3 billion Chinese have planned or started to buy or build more spacious homes.
Per capita living spacein cities increased from 20 square metres in 2000 to 25 square metres last year. The figure is 40 in the United States, 38 in Germany, and 30 in Japan and Singapore.
Wang said that housing supply in the country is out of balance, with insufficient lower-priced, smaller houses for low-income families.
China's real estate market has experienced a major growth in some regions since 2002 with house prices increasing at around 15 per cent annually on average.
In August 2004, the central government started to tighten land and loan supply to curb the trend.
(China Daily)
|
Updated: 2006-02-07 08:00
