Houses full of hope

Housing for lower-income families has and should become an important driver of China's stable economic growth in the years ahead, because of weakening exports and the sloppy recovery of the global economy.

Work on 10 million affordable housing units started this year and construction of another 7 million will begin in 2012, a central government meeting said on Thursday. That the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has signed a document, on behalf of the State Council, with local governments to ensure they honor their commitments to the program shows the central government's resolve on the issue.

The affordable housing program is an important part of the central government's macro-control policy, which will increase domestic consumption both directly and indirectly.