Like most of his colleagues, Hu Zhongjie, a translator for 22 years, decided to buy the rented apartment his unit allocated him 10 years ago.

"It's worth it," he said. Although this two-bedroom unit is quite old, its location in the Jianguomen commercial district creates great potential for appreciation.

The 70-square-meter flat was being sold at 1,450 yuan per square meter. After deducting the depreciation rate, plus various allowances, such as subsidies for length of employment, Hu paid less than 30,000 yuan, compared to the original 101,500 yuan. "I can sell it at an opportune time in the future and put the money toward a three-bedroom flat," Hu said.

The monetization of housing consumption advocated by the Chinese Government in recent years has enabled more and more ordinary people like Hu to own their homes. The housing market targeting such people has become, and will remain for a certain period, a hot spot in China's growing real estate sector.

Ordinary Housing Craze

At an economic house fair held in Beijing last October, some 3 million square meters were sold out at an average price of 3,000 yuan per square meter.

In the first 10 months of the year, the real estate market saw encouraging changes. Investment increased by 9.2 percent over last year, and the area sold rose by 41 percent. In some cities, ordinary apartments were in short supply, pushing up prices even more.

Early this year, the Central Government announced that the welfare housing allotment would be stopped throughout the country in the latter half. Immediately, available houses in central Beijing at moderate or low prices began selling well. For instance, at Wangjing New City in northeast Beijing, which will have a total construction area of 14 million square meters, 95 percent of its first 17 buildings were sold shortly after going on the market.

According to the information jointly issued by the State Development Planning Commission and the State Statistical Bureau, since 1997, individuals have become the main consumers. Last year, this group constituted 58 percent of total ordinary house sales, up 28 percent over the previous year. Between January and September of this year, private purchases reached 67 percent in some major cities.

In economically developed countries, the income of wage-earners mostly includes sufficient amounts for buying houses, but the wages of Chinese workers have not had this component.

But this is changing. According to a State policy soon to be promulgated, public servants from section to bureau levels who have worked for 25 years will be entitled to an amount between 160,000-500,000 yuan as a housing subsidy. The preferential price at which Hu Zhongjie bought his flat actually includes such kind of subsidies.

In addition, the State allows all commercial banks to offer secured loans for individual purchase of various kinds of ordinary commercial houses in all cities. The banks are also allowed to prolong the term of such loans. The service has so far been launched in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Nanjing and Guangzhou. Currently, total housing central provident funds nationwide approach 90 billion yuan. This year, the Government approved another 100 billion yuan in loans.

All these measures, plus repeated bank interest rate cuts, have added to the individual enthusiasm for house purchase, thus boosting the ordinary housing market. In the first four months of this year alone, individual mortgage loans in Beijing exceeded 16.78 billion yuan, a 1.35-fold rise.