BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s cabinet on Friday approved guidelines for planning and construction of affordable housing at a meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang, state media Xinhua news agency reported.
The move comes amid a deepening crisis in the country’s property sector, with a rising risk of default among some developers as they struggle to sell apartments and raise funds.
The guidelines will help improve people’s livelihoods, expand effective investment and promote the stable and healthy development of the property market, Xinhua said, citing the cabinet meeting.
Xinhua didn’t reveal details of the guidelines.
Beijing has been pushing more affordable housing in recent years as runaway home prices in major cities shut out many young buyers – a plan that has assumed greater significance in the wake of the debt crisis in the property sector and weakening economic growth.
An official at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said last year that China would add 6.5 million new low-cost rental housing units in 40 major cities in 2021-2025.
However, with the property downturn, official data showed new home prices fell in July for the first time this year, underlining an urgency for bolder policy support.
On Friday, the housing ministry, the central bank and the national financial regulator also jointly issued a notice easing mortgage policies to help revive the sector.
China’s housing market has over the past two years been grappling with a severe debt crisis – initially triggered by government moves to rein in ballooning debt.
The cabinet on Friday also approved plans to develop the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries during 2023-2025, as it vowed to expand the country’s supply capacity of high-end medicines and key technologies, according to Xinhua.
China will also strengthen the protection of traditional Chinese medicine and safeguard its development, the report said.
(Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; editing by John Stonestreet and Susan Fenton)
