This Day, That Year

Item from March 2, 1995, in China Daily: More than 1,400 families have received the keys to new apartments in Fengtai district, Beijing, in the capital's efforts to ease the severe housing shortage among middle - and low-income families. ...

The housing market remains red hot in China's big cities.

Last month, median home prices in Beijing topped 57,000 yuan ($8,300) per square meter, followed by Shanghai at 52,000 yuan per sq m.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is calling it a "superhigh home price period". It said the Chinese residential market started to grow quickly between 2015 and 2016, and the sales volume soared by 27 percent between January and September 2016.

In December, President Xi Jinping said China will take a varied approach to regulating the property market, adopting a number measures to provide housing for all.

In addition to the affordable housing program aimed at the middle - and low-income families, Beijing launched a program called "commodity house for personal use" in 2013.

Only families with Beijing hukou, or residential permit, owning no more than one house in the city, and those without hukou but have paid tax for five years will be eligible.

The price of such apartments will be 30 percent lower than market rates, and they can't be sold for five years after purchase.

As of January, 56,000 such apartments had been sold, with an average price of just 18,000 yuan per sq m.