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Housing sector under pressure
December 1, 2009, Tuesday
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HANGZHOU government is facing a shortage of budget homes for residents as it tries to attract new talent into the city, Fei Lai reports. Affordable housing provided by Hangzhou government next year totalling 500,000 square meters is being targeted at attracting skilled professionals into the city.
The city is aiming to supply 5,000 units of "talent houses" in 2010, and high on the priority list are teachers and experts in business and justice practices. Prices of the "talent houses" are about half of the commercial apartments.
According to the talent housing project, 200 units will be allocated for teachers, 1,000 for the justice division and 100 for talents settled in Xiaoshan, Yuhang, Binjiang and Xiasha districts.
Qualifying business experts will also be accommodated.
"It's true that a considerable number of married middle-aged people are locked into their circumstances," says Wang Guoping, Party secretary of Hangzhou.
"They have aging parents and a kid to look after. They do not meet the requirements for budget homes, nor can they afford commercial housing,'' he says.
They are called the "sandwich class."
"However, they are the backbone of various units. The 'sandwich class' finds it difficult to buy a house."
Talent housing is specially listed in Hangzhou's housing plan for the first time. Other housing projects include budget housing, relocation housing, low-rent housing, budget-rental housing and renovation of old and dilapidated houses.
"Currently, Hangzhou is mostly short of talent housing and budget-rental housing," Wang says. "It is necessary to get them planned and launched as soon as possible.
"Talent housing needs to expand coverage of talents, stabilize prices and improve quality. In the past, talent housing was small in scale but it should be expanded appropriately and its quality should reach that of commercial housing."
Wang says if the program was continued for several years, it would play a key role in stabilizing house prices and reduce the difficulty in buying houses.
In terms of budget housing in Hangzhou, a total of 49,000 families had successfully applied by the end of October.
Wang says the requirement for applicants of budget housing can be lowered to some extent to allow more people to benefit.
Affordable rental houses are a new solution by the local government to support the "sandwich class."
The first phase at Banshan Tianyuan area boasts a housing area of 335,800 square meters.
It will start construction on December 26 and around 100 units will be promoted as a trial in the budget-rental housing project.
With a total investment of 880 million yuan (US$129 million), Banshan Tianyuan project will be finished in two years.
In terms of commercial housing, Hangzhou government will promote opening up of areas for residential usage to solve the problem of demand exceeding supply.
"Currently, more than 100 hectares of land in Hangzhou's old town is being sold," Wang says. "It has reached a historical record."
In 2010, Hangzhou will start construction of relocation housing of 3.6 million square meters and finish construction of relocation housing of 2.6 million square meters. Newly launched low-rent housing next year will amount to 50,000 square meters.
Hangzhou government will also invest 150 million yuan to subsidize renovation of old and dilapidated houses.
The city is aiming to supply 5,000 units of "talent houses" in 2010, and high on the priority list are teachers and experts in business and justice practices. Prices of the "talent houses" are about half of the commercial apartments.
According to the talent housing project, 200 units will be allocated for teachers, 1,000 for the justice division and 100 for talents settled in Xiaoshan, Yuhang, Binjiang and Xiasha districts.
Qualifying business experts will also be accommodated.
"It's true that a considerable number of married middle-aged people are locked into their circumstances," says Wang Guoping, Party secretary of Hangzhou.
"They have aging parents and a kid to look after. They do not meet the requirements for budget homes, nor can they afford commercial housing,'' he says.
They are called the "sandwich class."
"However, they are the backbone of various units. The 'sandwich class' finds it difficult to buy a house."
Talent housing is specially listed in Hangzhou's housing plan for the first time. Other housing projects include budget housing, relocation housing, low-rent housing, budget-rental housing and renovation of old and dilapidated houses.
"Currently, Hangzhou is mostly short of talent housing and budget-rental housing," Wang says. "It is necessary to get them planned and launched as soon as possible.
"Talent housing needs to expand coverage of talents, stabilize prices and improve quality. In the past, talent housing was small in scale but it should be expanded appropriately and its quality should reach that of commercial housing."
Wang says if the program was continued for several years, it would play a key role in stabilizing house prices and reduce the difficulty in buying houses.
In terms of budget housing in Hangzhou, a total of 49,000 families had successfully applied by the end of October.
Wang says the requirement for applicants of budget housing can be lowered to some extent to allow more people to benefit.
Affordable rental houses are a new solution by the local government to support the "sandwich class."
The first phase at Banshan Tianyuan area boasts a housing area of 335,800 square meters.
It will start construction on December 26 and around 100 units will be promoted as a trial in the budget-rental housing project.
With a total investment of 880 million yuan (US$129 million), Banshan Tianyuan project will be finished in two years.
In terms of commercial housing, Hangzhou government will promote opening up of areas for residential usage to solve the problem of demand exceeding supply.
"Currently, more than 100 hectares of land in Hangzhou's old town is being sold," Wang says. "It has reached a historical record."
In 2010, Hangzhou will start construction of relocation housing of 3.6 million square meters and finish construction of relocation housing of 2.6 million square meters. Newly launched low-rent housing next year will amount to 50,000 square meters.
Hangzhou government will also invest 150 million yuan to subsidize renovation of old and dilapidated houses.
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