Born in a small village in eastern China's Anhui province, Shen could hardly afford a house in Beijing when the average price for residential buildings hovered around 5,000 yuan per sq m in 1998.

Shen says he especially wanted an apartment in order to marry his girlfriend whom he'd been with for six years. Then a news story about "economically affordable housing" caught his eye.

On October 29, 1998 the country's first 19 low-cost housing projects, including the largest two Tiantongyuan and Huilongguan, made their debut at the Beijing Real Estate Transaction Center.

"It was really a pleasant surprise for me, but I also had some concerns over the location and building quality," says Shen.

Beijing's municipal government priced the apartments at around 2,600 yuan by reducing taxes to property developers and limiting their profit margin no more than 3 percent. However, most of the apartments were located in the rural-urban fringe areas.

"When Beijing's Fifth Ring Road was still in the blueprint stage and personal autos were still a luxury, living in such a remote location was almost unimaginable for most people working in urban areas," Shen says.

But he finally bought one in Tiantongyuan due to the "attractive" price.

After Shen Jun moved into his new apartment in the largest low-cost housing project in Beijing, in 2001, he found that some of his neighbors were actually pretty well off.