China: 36 Million Affordable Housing Units In Five Years

"The Chinese government has unveiled ambitious plans to 36 million units of affordable housing – an estimated 20% of all new housing starts – during the next five years. Ten million units are supposed to come onto the market this year alone.

Qi Ji, vice minister for Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said the building budget for 2011 would come in at US$198 billion, but only US$76 billion of that would come from central government coffers. Local authorities will have to call upon other parties to help fill the funding gap. Failure to do this could jeopardize Beijing's wish to cool the red-hot housing sector and ease potential social unrest. "

Statistics Source: China Economic Review