Study On Hardships Of Funding For Low-rent Housing Construction And Countermeasures

With the rising house price and boiling popular discontent, the housing problem has not just been about economy, but more about people's livelihood to stabilize society. In the current housing supply system, compared with demand of the high-income group for commercial housing and that of those receiving medium and low income for affordable houses, demand for low-rent housing of those families with minimum income and without purchasing power is much more important and pressing. Finding a solution to their problem is key to maintain social harmony and to show the superiority of China's social system.The government in 1998 issued a State Council Notice on Deepening The Reform of The Urban Housing System and Accelerating Housing Construction (the No.23 document). It came up with the notion of building a multi-layered housing supply system, based on affordable housing, to meet demands of various income groups. Commercial housing will target families with relatively high income at market price; affordable houses will give medium- and low-income ones at government-guided price; low-rent houses will be offered to those receiving minimum and low income, and the rent is priced by the government.After ten years'development, the government continues to improve attention of low-rent housing construction and certain achievements have been made. Countless low-income families have solved housing needs thanks to the system. However, our low-rent housing is still not perfect comparing with that of western developed countries. The biggest restriction of the low-rent housing construction is financing problem, due to low initiative of local government, unreasonable financing structure and lack of financial suppport. Some areas are not paying enough attention to low-rent housing construction; some have no stable low-cost funding sources; shortage of financial budget and small coverage of minimum-income families because of the imperfect system without establishing strict application and approval procedures are also the main reasons. Among all the reasons, funding problem counts the most.This article analyses charactristics and weakness of low-rent housing construction from the perspective of funding source, the initial condition of the problem. By drawing lessons from international successful cases of developed countries and based on our own conditions, the article explores way to solve the funding problem of low-rent housing construction.