Housing for All in China
2 min readThe main goal of housing reforms is to give all Chinese citizens the chance to live in their own homes，rather than offer opportunities for investment.
In the 1994“Decision Concerning the Deepening of Urban Housing Reform，”the State Council initiated the State Low-cost Housing Project.This helps low-and medium-income families to purchase their own apartments.In January 1995 the State Council Housing System Reform Leading Group and relevant departments worked out “The State Low-cost Housing Project Implementation Plan，”which marked the project’s formal implementation.Its aim is to construct 1.5 billion square meters of apartment buildings between 1995 and 2000.These blocks are intended for urban low-and medium-income families who have never benefited from allocated housing，or who live in dangerous or seriously over-crowded conditions.Property will be sold to them directly at cost price.The natural effect of this project will be the establishment，step by step，of a housing supply system that operates in a way similar to social security.
For impoverished families to whom even low-priced apartments are out of reach，the government has designed a“Low-Rental Housing Project.”Guangdong Province was the first to implement its own low-rental housing by specifying qualified applicants as“families whose per capita income is lower than the local poverty line as declared by the local government，whose per capita housing space is less than sixsquare meters，and whose residential registration is in the category of permanent urban residents.”
Housing resources for the project consist of public-owned accommodation that has become available since its former residents moved to new homes，low-rental government constructed housing，and unsold commodity housing purchased by the government.Such housing is strictly for rent，and its tenants are the urban poor.
