Lesson 20

Is Housing Reform Necessary?

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Housing Reform Faces Obstacles

Housing reform, acknowledged by economists and politicians at home and abroad as central to China's economic reform, has reached a critical stage.

A recent article in the overseas edition of the magazine Outlook remarked that China's housing reform is facing five obstacles. Major breakthroughs will surely come if these knotty problems are carefully and properly handled.

Firstly, the old attitudes of the bulk of urban employees that it is the State's duty to provide shelter as a kind of social welfare has adversely affected their enthusiasm for participating in housing reform.

Most people don't include housing on their shopping list. They think that they deserve State housing no matter how little they may have contributed towards it.

Some of them consider commercialization or privatization of housing as being synonymous with taking money out of people's pockets and so running counter to the ideals of socialism.

Secondly, the little money that workers, enterprises and governments at all levels have has affected the accomplishment of housing expectations.

The per-capita monthly earnings of not more than 80 yuan in China's urban areas plus the continuous price hike of recent years has greatly lowered the citizens' ability to pay extra to buy a house and has reduced their incentive.

It is difficult for enterprises to earmark large sums to support housing reform since many of them are not profitably run. The State, already in deficit, finds itself unable to subsidize the reform.

Thirdly, the current housing reform will encounter social risks since those vested interest holders, most of them senior cadres, stand in the way of the restructure.

Fourthly, the rocketing price of housing has tremendously dampened the enthusiasm of potential house buyer. In some large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the price has surged to record heights of around 2,000 yuan a square metre.

Finally, the overall social reform environment has slowed the pace of housing reform. The present relationship of cost, wages, finance and social welfare system reforms has stemmed the housing reform since they are closely integrated.

Based on the preceding problems, the article puts forward several suggestions on how to resolve them.

First of all, there should be more publicity to encourage urban dwellers to give up their stereotype thinking that housing is social welfare right guaranteed by the State.

Commercialization of housing may be achieved through several different phases.

The idea of carrying out the housing reform at one stroke should be abandoned.

Housing reform should be implemented in conformity with the country's wage, price and other related reforms. The State Council should pressure local governments--especially those that are dragging their feet - to speed up their housing reform when necessary, but meantime it should promise to share sorne of the risks local authorities will face.

So quite a few obstacles have emerged and the decision makers should do some hard thinking to determine the correct course of action.

These were the opinions aired by dozens of experts and economists on construction and housing reform who have been summoned recently to a meeting in Beijing by the Ministry of Construction, to coincide with the World Habitat Day on October 2.

II . Read

Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

1. Encouraging Atmosphere for Housing Reform

The current atmosphere in respect of reform in housing is still encouraging, the experts and economists said. Despite some areas and departments having resorted. to the attitude of "wait-and-see" and even called a halt to housing reform, attributable to the April-June social unrest, 2G out of the country's 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions are still maintaining their endeavours adhering to the scheduled restructure.

Out in the main metropolises, Beijing and Tianjin are experimenting with a reform scenario of "multiple directions", such as raising rents for public residential housing, encouraging urban residents to buy more State-built housing, arranging funds to build commercial high-rises, setting up housing deposit banks and the like.

Shanghai, the largest city in China, is also drafting its blueprint to quicken the pace of its housing reform in keeping up with their housing requirements.

In Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, an overall housing reform plan is beginning this month. The municipal government plan stipulates that all residents living in non-privately-owned houses, including those owned by the city's real estate administration departments and by State and collective units, will have to purchas

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