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![The issue of inadequate housing is particularly grim in emerging countries like China and India, which are poverty-ridden in pockets [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/131327139_31n.jpg)
The issue of inadequate housing is particularly grim in emerging countries like China and India, which are poverty-ridden in pockets [Xinhua]
China will increase the supply of land for homes and spend more on affordable housing projects, President Xi Jinping said last year.
China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced on Friday that the government will target completion of building 4.8 million of these low-cost homes next year.
Housing Minister Chen Zhenggao revealed the target at a national conference on housing and urban-rural development in Beijing.
The affordable housing program is aimed at providing cheap homes for eligible low-income earners.
China began the construction of over seven million homes and completed 4.8 million in 2014.
Chen said China will also continue to push forward the shanty town renovation program extensively as “it can not only improve people’s livelihood but also spur economic growth”.
The issue of inadequate housing is particularly grim in emerging countries like China and India, which are poverty-ridden in pockets.
India needs about 19 million low-cost homes – roughly defined as costing a million rupees ($16,700) and below – to shelter an urban population expected to nearly double to 600 million by 2030 from 2011.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also vowed to adopt a low-cost housing policy that would ensure every family in Asia’s third-largest economy has a home by 2022.
A new McKinsey report says the affordable-housing gap now stands at about $650 billion a year, or 1 per cent of global gross domestic product.
TBP and Agencies
