From Chinese Press

Stop housing fraud

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-11 08:22

The authorities should investigate whether huge houses have been allocated to rich people in the name of economy housing and ensure that the poor get their rights, says an article on Red Net. Excerpts:

A woman from a rich Beijing family said in an online game community recently that the poor don't deserve affordable housing and posted photographs of her family's two-story "affordable house" which had an area of more than 300 sqm. Her attitude has rightly angered the public.

Affordable houses are built for low-income and poor families. The rich not only break the rules and encroach upon poor people's rights and resources, but also show off their estates and mock the disadvantaged.

But what the woman said is true, because the poor cannot afford 300-sq-m houses. According to Beijing's economy housing standards, the usable area of affordable houses is between 40 and 80 sq m. If the woman's claim that hers is an affordable housing unit is true then her family has broken this rule.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently ordered officials to stop building economy houses that break the rules and forbade applications for other policy-based housing units for five years. We hope all the related departments implement the regulation strictly and avoid allocating huge houses to rich people in the name of economy housing.

(China Daily 05/11/2010 page9)