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Unbearable burden of housing for urbanites
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-03-04 11:35
"Shanghai's housing prices made me dizzy," said Yu Guosheng, vice director of
Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission here on Friday.
Yu made the comment immediately after he arrived in Beijing to attend the
annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) slated to convene on
Saturday, speaking of the souring real estateprices in the eastern China
metropolis.
Actually, buying an apartment or house in many Chinese cities has become one
of the top concerns of Chinese wage-earners, whose salaries increase far slower
than that of the hiking real estate prices.
In Shanghai, the average price of residential houses is about 50,000 yuan per
square meter, almost the yearly incomes of a Chinese commoner with a quite
presentable job, said NPC deputy Yu.
According to the National Statistics Bureau (NSB), China's average commercial
housing price stood at 2,777 yuan (335 US dollars) per square meter in the first
nine months last year, up 13 percent year-on-year.
The figure continued to grow in 35 major Chinese cities in the fourth quarter
last year, up 10.8 percent on a year-on-year basis.
A survey conducted by the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC)
shows the average ratio between housing price and income is approaching 12:1 in
some Chinese cities such as Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province,
one of China's economic booming towns.
The ratio between housing prices and disposable incomes should reasonably
range between 4:1 to 6:1 in developing nations, according to a research done by
the World Bank.
Recently, some Chinese urban dwellers started to discuss the possibility of
pooling money together to construct their own houses or apartments, a noticeable
response to the fast-increasinghousing price for commercial residence.
Song Linfei, a member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said polarity of the country's real
estate market should heed more attention from government departments, research
institutions and developers.
More affordable housing projects should be developed, said Song,from Nanjing,
while attending this year's CPPCC session on Friday.
In addition, governments at various levels should make it easier for people
to build their own residence and diversify housing supply means in China.
"The unbearable burden of buying a place to live will definitely embark
heated discussions in the CPPCC and NPC sessions," said Song, president of
Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
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