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China to build 10m low-income housing units

By Qiang Xiaoji (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-02-25 14:48

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, on behalf of the State Council's working group on low-income housing projects, signed letters of responsibility about public housing projects in 2011, with provinces, cities, municipalities and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on Thursday, People's Daily reported Friday.

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China will build 10 million low-income housing units in urban and rural areas, up 70 percent from last year, and renovate over 1.5 million dilapidated houses in rural areas, the newspaper reported.

Related departments of the State Council urged local governments to act as quickly as possible. Construction of all projects should be started no later than the end of November this year, and 5 million units should be basically completed this year under the premise of project quality, the report said.

According to the letters, public rental housing will gradually become an important part of public housing, which will be used for low-income families with housing difficulties and newly employed workers without houses.

In 2011, the central government will provide subsidies worth 100 billion yuan ($14.87 billion) for low-income housing projects and will continue to greatly increase that amount, the report said.