China’s revenue from the sale of land rights last year totalled 2.9 trillion yuan (S$564 billion), but only 1.6 per cent went towards the construction of low-rental housing units, far below the proportion recommended by the Ministry of Finance, the China Business News reported yesterday, citing its own calculations.
China spent 46.3 billion yuan on the construction of low-rental housing units last year, the newspaper reported.
In 2007, the Ministry of Finance issued a directive for local governments to allocate at least 10 per cent of revenue from the sale of land rights to the construction of low-rental housing from Jan 1, 2008, the report said.
Low-rental housing units are a type of government-subsidized housing. Other types include public rental housing, economic housing for sale, and slum area reconstruction.
The central government aims to build 10 million government-subsidised housing units this year at an estimated cost of 1.3 trillion yuan, as part of efforts to help stabilise China’s overheated property market.
Source : Today – 18 Mar 2011