By Hao Zhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-07 17:24

Average prices of economically affordable houses in 36 large and medium-sized cities fell by 1.2 percent from a month earlier in August, the first monthly drop this year, said the price department of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Beijing Times reported today.

As rising food and house prices exert strong inflation pressures this year, the State Council is issuing affordable housing guidelines for low-income families.

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For example, the government will buy back economically affordable houses from owners who buy a second house, and newly-built affordable houses are required to be approximately 60 square meters each, according to the State Council.

By the end of last year, the State had completed construction of 1.3 billion square meters of economically affordable houses, showed statistics from the Ministry of Construction.

By contrast, average commercial house prices in first, second, and third class land sectors in 36 cities rose 0.7 percent, 1.7 percent, and 0.6 percent respectively month-on-month.

Additionally, the proportion of commodity housing units with a floor space of less than 90 square meters each among the total permitted for presale rose to 39.26 percent between January and July from 34.39 percent last year.