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Economy housing or scandal

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-26 07:53

As economist Mao Yushi said, economy houses might not serve the low-income families' interests because of illegal deals both in their development and distribution. It's time we reconsidered the benefits of economy housing and stopped some people from making profits illegally, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpt:

Economist Mao Yushi has said many a time that economy and limited-profit housing units cannot meet low-income families' demand. If the government develops such houses on a massive scale, it may push up prices and lead to corruption.

Though Mao has faced severe public criticism for his views, media reports have recently revealed several economy or limited-profit housing scandals. As a result, people now have started questioning whether such housing complexes really help the low-income group.

In one of the cases, a real estate developer in Zhengzhou, Henan province, was found building expensive villas on a plot earmarked for economy housing units. In another, a fraud was detected in the drawing of lots for allocating economy houses in Wuhan, Hubei province. Perhaps more surprisingly, the Wuhan local government's press conference to clarify the case lasted just 55 seconds.

The government spends huge sums of money to subsidize the economy housing scheme to help low-income families to own a house. But now Mao's worries seem to be coming true because some people are using the scheme to make money illegally.

(China Daily 06/26/2009 page9)