China unifies public housing schemes

BEIJING -- China is to combine two subsidized housing programs -- low-rent and public rental -- and manage them together as "public rental housing."

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Friday that housing authorities were to merge all low rent projects into public rental housing next year.

Construction of low rent housing which has already be started may continue, but homes should be put into the public rental housing system upon completion.

Local authorities must continue to improve the pricing mechanism for public rents. Rent concessions or subsidies should be according to the tenants' ability to pay, the ministry said.

With house prices soaring, the government rolled out low-rent housing and public rental housing years ago to solve the problems of low income families in cities, lessen the difficulties of new employees and improve living conditions of migrant workers. However, there is a five year waiting list for public rental housing.

The Ministry of Finance said in May that it had allocated 8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) to support low rent housing and 58 billion yuan for public rental projects in 2013.