Beijing switches to rent model for housing

Beijing will refrain from building and selling new low-cost residences because of public controversy created when the residences were purchased only to be sold later for profit, a senior official of the city's housing commission said on Thursday.

The low-cost residences, which have been a major source of affordable housing for middle and low wage earners, will be replaced by additional public rental housing - dwellings that can be rented but not individually owned - according to Zou Jingsong, an official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

"Over the next five years the government will mainly build three types of housing: public rentals, subsidized owner-occupied homes and houses accommodating people displaced by the government's demolition of dilapidated buildings," Zou said.