China's property sector advances on new fronts

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Staring at the construction site of an affordable housing project from the balcony of her 10-square-meter rented room, Tian Xue is envisioning her future family life.

"The affordable housing made it possible for me to enjoy better living conditions at a lower price, so I will apply to buy my new home there," said Tian, who came to Hangzhou two years ago and hoped to settle down.

Building affordable housing that is conducive to meeting the essential housing demands of Chinese people like Tian is one of the measures China has taken to promote the high-quality development of the real estate sector. Efforts have also been made to fulfill the need for better living conditions.

This year's government work report called for accelerating the fostering of a new real estate development model, a strategic move based on the major changes in supply-demand dynamics, featuring high quality, new technology, and good services.

ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL HOUSING

The advancement of affordable housing, an important step in promoting a new development model for the real estate market in China, is quite different from the old one, featuring high debt and high leverage rates.

Tian's "dream house" belongs to one of the 12 affordable housing projects Hangzhou plans to start construction this year. Knowing that the project will have supporting facilities for the community's elderly and child care, she feels it would be convenient and reassuring if she started a family there.

"From 2024 to 2028, the city will build 50,000 high-quality, affordable houses," said Xie Xiaomin, director of a municipal housing service center.

Affordable housing, aimed at people who find buying a house difficult, and talents such as scientific, technical, and medical care personnel, is one of China's important reforms to fine-tune its housing supply system. The prices of affordable houses will be much lower than the market price.

Increasing the supply of affordable housing contributes to fulfilling essential housing demands for people with housing problems, empowering them to strive for a better life, said Liu Lin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research.

At present, 65 cities nationwide have made the annual plan for affordable housing projects. Xi'an plans to start building 15,000 affordable houses, and Shenzhen has launched 13 affordable housing projects.

Besides building affordable housing, China also focuses on advancing the construction of public infrastructure for both normal and emergency use and the renovation of villages in cities.

Liu concluded the aforementioned efforts contribute to invigorating investment and consumption.

She said, "It can drive investment in the sector and relevant industries and stimulate consumption in decorative materials, furniture, home appliances, and tourism."

BETTER HOME TO LIVE IN

In this year's government work report, China pledged to scale up the building and supply of affordable housing and improve the basic systems for commodity housing to meet people's essential need for a home and their different demands for better housing.

The rise of demand for improved living conditions is an important impetus for the high-quality development of China's property sector in the future, said Sam Xie, head of research at CBRE China.

Xie said that the rapid development of China's real estate has greatly improved residents' living conditions and people's demand is gradually turning from "owning a home" to "a better home to live in."

Zhao Na, a resident in Ji'nan, east China's Shandong Province, had just sold a house below 90 square meters and bought a new one of 140 square meters with four rooms.

"I like the layout and indoor decorations of the house, and the park and school nearby also bring convenience to us as we have two kids," said Zhao, adding that everyone in her family is happy to have their own space in the new home and considers it an improvement of their living conditions.

Efforts should be made toward the goal of enabling Chinese people to live in better houses, and then good communities and good cities, said Ni Hong, minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

This year, more than 30 cities have introduced policies offering professional assistance, tax incentives, or subsidies to support residents willing to sell their old homes to purchase better ones.

"Basic housing demand and the need for improved housing are still driven strongly by the advancement of urbanization and the improvement of people's living standards," said Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the National Bureau of Statistics.

"There is a solid foundation for the sustained and healthy growth of the property market," he said.