Never has a government document been withdrawn as invalid within such a short time as 24 hours although it is a draft for soliciting opinions.

This is what happened to a document issued by the Ministry of Construction on the design of low-cost commercial apartments smaller than 90 square meters. According to the short-lived document, such apartments can be as large as 106 square meters.

However, 90 square meters was the ceiling set by a State Council document early last year on at least 70 percent of the total housing in any given property development. The restriction aims to stabilize soaring house prices and ensure that most people can afford to buy a home of their own.

Officials from the ministry explained that the draft contradicted the State Council document early last year. But they failed to say how it was discussed before it was issued on Tuesday.

It is no small matter for a government department to issue a document that represents a policy of the central government and functions as a regulation for relevant units to abide by. There can never be too much discussion or precautions taken before such a document is published.

The draft was apparently not written in a day. There were reports that the ministry was working on such a draft weeks before it was published. In that case, there was not enough communication between the ministry and the State Council.

What is even stranger is the fact the ministry was one of the nine ministries and departments under the State Council that jointly issued the document setting the ceiling of 90 square meters for low-cost housing.

Whatever is behind this case, the message is clear that the central government give priority to residents being able to afford to buy or rent homes over meeting the needs of a few who want to have more spacious homes.

In addition, the country cannot afford to provide most of its residents with large houses, given the fact that the limited arable land has been encroached upon considerably by urban sprawl in the past couple of years and the country's population will reach 1.5 billion by 2033.

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