Public rental housing to be a prominent part of Beijing's welfare housing

Beijing will gradually expand the construction of public rental housing, giving it a more predominant position in the development of Beijing's welfare housing, said Huang Yan, director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning (BMCUP). Public rental housing will be built during the transformation of suburban areas, such as Tangjialing village in Haidian District, in order to provide low-rent housing to the migrant population and recent college graduates.

Public rental housing will take a predominant position among all types of welfare housing

Huang said that public rental housing has already been incorporated into Beijing's welfare housing system. With the provision of government-owned public land and the support from public finance, 500,000 square meters of public rental housing will be built in Beijing's urban areas in 2010, far more than that of the previous year. The construction of public rental housing will gradually be increased in the future, and thus public rental housing will take a predominant position among all types of welfare housing.

Wang Fei, vice chief designer from BMCUP, said departments including BMCUP have already initiated the formulation of a plan for the space outlay of welfare housing. The plan will include the spatial layout for low-rent housing, affordable housing, price-limited housing, public rental housing and other types of welfare housing for a period lasting until 2015, with the percentage of public rental housing within the welfare housing sector continuously increasing.

Provide affordable homes to the "ant tribe"

The housing conditions of the so-called "ant tribe" have become the focus of public attention

On March 10, Huang Yan stated that quite a few university graduates live in villages in the rural/urban fringe adjacent to industrial parks. There are many illegal buildings in these villages.

"We think that for the ant tribe, low living costs are a great benefit, as they are currently not entitled to buy affordable housing provided by local government. So, we have considered building state-owned apartments for rent in Tangjialing," said Huang Yan.

According to Huang, there are more than 4,000 locals and more than 40,000 people from other regions in Tangjialing Village. 60 to 70 percent of the people from other regions are white-collar workers working at Haidian District's Shanhou Industrial Park. The renovation and revitalization of the village involves the urbanization of the village and the relocation of the "ant tribe." How to provide the ant tribe affordable apartments will be the biggest problem after the urbanization problem is solved.

On the other hand, local villagers have been living on rent money for many years and they need a new source of income.

Given the two factors, Huang said, the government will build state-owned buildings for rent in Tangjialing Village. In the past, some land was reserved for collective-owned enterprises and the collective economy so as to guarantee the long-term interests of the villagers. Later, industrial enterprises and warehouses were built on the reserved land. The government should build some special buildings on the reserved land to supplement the necessary facilities.

"Therefore, building state-owned houses for rent on the reserved land will solve three problems at once," said Huang Yan.