By Dai Yan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-08-13 14:18

Policies on the real estate and housing sectors will focus on four specific priorities in the next one to three years, according to Chen Huai, director of the Policy Research Center under the Ministry of Construction.

At a seminar on macro economy and the real estate industry, Chen said the first priority is making low-rent housing more available. Currently low-rent houses are only available for extremely low-income families, but many low-income ones still earn too little to afford housing. The new low-rent housing policy will cover at least 18-20 percent of citizens in Beijing and Shanghai.

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The second priority is encouraging energy saving and environmentally friendly construction. China will continue efforts to curb construction of luxury and large-sized houses and allocate resources reasonably to satisfy demand for more basic houses, said Chen.

Policy-making regarding the industry will thirdly be mindful of the macro economy and meet requirements of macro-control, Chen added. China's economic operation is at a highly sensitive stage, as the consumer price index was up 3.2 percent in the first half year on year.

Property investment takes more and more shares in fixed social asset investment, which may lead to increasing demand for housing and pressure the macro economy, said Chen.

Last, Chen believed the government will prioritize emphasis on stable real estate development in next few years.