China Economic Review, October 2010 • It’s as if they hit the jackpot. This summer about 1,940 families were selected to purchase affordable apartments in Shanghai through a new government housing scheme. To qualify for the trial project, a family’s average annual income per capita must be less than RMB 27,600 (US$4,077) with each member’s share of current living space fewer than 15 square meters.

While China’s property boom has been a boon for the country’s wealthy elite, home ownership has remained an unattainable dream for many of the county’s low-income workers and even middle-class professionals.

But now, Shanghai officials are planning to build a further 1.2 million low-income apartments in non-central areas of the city. Chongqing also announced in September that it will construct 40 million sq m of public housing over a three-year period.

These programs come after the central government set an official target of building 3 million low-cost housing units and renovating 2.8 million others this year. By 2011, Beijing hopes to bring as many as 13 million new affordable homes into the mix.

Read the full story here