China to deal with five urban malaises

Building affordable housing is an important measure for the government to meet urban residents' needs for housing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

To build enough affordable housing

In many large cities, the housing prices have increased rapidly, putting a lot of pressure on homebuyers and driving many people out of cities. In regard to addressing the housing problem, the guiding principle of Chinese government is that the government provides affordable housing while the market meets the needs for commercial houses. In 2015, the central government allocated 124.3 billion yuan ($20.2 billion) to fund an affordable housing program.

At the Central Urban Work Conference, the government vowed to complete renovation of rundown urban areas and dilapidated housing by 2020. The renovation is a crucial part of providing low-income urban residents with affordable housing.

Another major task of the government is to "transform migrant workers into urbanites", which is expected to deflate the tight housing inventory.