Yet another focus of the Jilin government in its 12th Five-Year Plan is improved housing conditions for its lower-income citizens.

It intends to refurbish its 4,000 kilometers heating pipes during this period. And it will use newer technology in its piping network to preserve energy over a 60-million-square-meter area.

The province wants to inject 130 billion yuan ($19.7 billion) into the property business this year, a 16.8 percent increase from last year's spending.

Investment in the property market has been relatively small, with slow growth, explained Qin Fuyi, head of the provincial housing and urban-rural development department.

"We're lagging behind the national average," Qin explained. The government will stimulate the market by providing smaller, low-cost housing units and by renovating some decrepit areas.

In one dilapidated area it began a large-scale renovation project in 2005, and has managed to solve the problem for nearly 50 million people living in poor housing.

Refurbishment projects in mining, forest farming, and reclamation areas will be the key to the whole thing, Qin added.

And, with the cooperation of other government departments and marketing people, the province thinks it can build a guaranteed system based on low-cost housing.

Rents in Jilin are still lower than in other more developed parts of the country, according to Qin, with a price of 12 yuan per sq-m in the capital and generally no more than 10 yuan per sq-m in other cities.

The government plans to build low-cost apartments for 12,000 people this year, and about 10,000 more every year until 2015.

(China Daily 02/23/2011 page14)