The story appears on

Page C3

August 28, 2010

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeDistrictMinhang

Low-cost housing draw is held

THE first round draw for 476 new low-cost housing units in Minhang was held in the District Housing Security Center on August 3. The family of Yin Gaoren, who drew first choice, selected a house at 68 Xiangtai Garden.

The participating families were all familiar with the houses in the draw, after looking them all over carefully. It took the Yin family only 20 seconds to pick the house they wanted.

"The house we chose will cost us about 400,000 yuan," Yin Gaoren said. "We've already got the first payment of 20 percent of the price prepared. For the rest, we plan to pay it by provident fund loans."

From August 3- 6, a total of 16 draws were held involving 465 families.

Seven families chose to forfeit the numbers they drew so that they could participate in the second round draw and perhaps get a lower number.

The selection process for choosing new low-cost housing in Minhang's was held in public view.

On a large board, each of the houses available was represented by a marker.

Families were allowed to pick the house they wanted in order of the numbers they drew.

They then signed their names on the markers to indicate the apartment of their choice. Each participating family was issued a booklet showing all the available houses and prices.

When one was picked, the remaining families simply crossed it off their list.

The process was monitored by the Shanghai Oriental Notary Office.

In the past, the selection process involved a computer keeping track of which homes people chose.

But that proved to be troublesome for some families to follow. So officials simplified the process with the public marker board.

The prices of the 476 apartments available for selection ranged from 250,000 yuan (US$36,700) to 570,000 yuan.

The prices are below market value and intended to help lower-income people into affordable housing.

But even so, some families said the prices were still a challenge to their household budgets.

The Shanghai Housing Security Bureau has issued some official guidelines handling situations where families can't pay off their housing loans.

In that event, the family can choose to sell its unit to the District Housing Security Administration and the money will be used to help pay off the loan. The family will then be allowed to rent the home.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend