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Distortion of housing policy

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-10 08:00

The Hangzhou government recently decided to reserve half of the newly built houses in the city for low-income people. But many of those houses have been bought by well-off people, says an article in Nanfang Daily. Excerpts:

Hangzhou city's new housing policy divides the housing facilities into six categories to be allocated to people according to their reputation and contribution to society. Many of the so-called affordable houses are in reality luxurious apartments and even villas near the Xixi wetlands, which have been bought by dozens of celebrities.

In fact, most of the houses have been bought by government officials, celebrities and senior executives of companies.

People who buy low-income houses have to fulfill certain criteria such as not having a house registered under their names. But the buyers meet such requirements, for the houses they live in are in the names of one family member or the other. Worse, many of the buyers are selling the houses to real estate dealers.

Moreover, quite a number of houses near Xixi were built exclusively for officials of some government departments after evacuating many low-income people from there on the pretext of preserving the wetlands.

The local government should know the difference between a person not having a house registered under his/her name and one that actually cannot buy one, and stop wasting public money and resources in the name of helping the poor.