According to a national survey and statistics report on urban housing released by the Ministry of Construction on Monday, China's residential floor areas for urban residents stood at 10.77 billion square meters at the end of 2005, about 65.46 percent of all buildings areas. The average personal residential space was 26.11 square meters.

Of the 10.77 billion square meters, the east China has 5.37 billion square meters, central regions 3.03 billion square meters and western regions 2.37 billion square meters, which accounts for 49.84 percent, 28.16 percent and 22 percent respectively.

The average residential area per household was 83.2 square meter, while the figure in the eastern regions was 85.32 square meters, 77.96 square meters in central regions and 85.75 square meters in the west.

The average personal residential space was 28 square meters in eastern regions, 23.9 square meters in central regions, and 25.24 square meters in the west.

East China's Zhejiang Province tops the list of the average personal living space at 34.8 square meters. Shanghai is second with 33.07 square meters. Beijing follows with 32.86 square meters. The data in most of the cities in the middle and western regions give figures of less than 25 square meters except Chongqing where the living area is 30.68 square meters per capita.

The urban private residential area – houses bought or constructed by individuals – was 8.79 billion square meters nationwide which accounted for 81.62 percent of all urban residential areas. This figure stood at 4.43 billion square meters in eastern regions, 2.42 billion square meters in the central regions and 1.94 billion square meters in the west.
 
According to Li Wenjie, manager of north China region for Centaline, a well known property developer, the proportion of private residential properties is somewhat high compared with the developed market in the US where the privatization level is only 60 percent.

As much of residential space remains vacant in the current Chinese real estate market, the government should strengthen guidance on housing consumption and stimulate the rental market, Li observed.

He also said that the over-development of large areas and high-end homes resulted in the rise of the average personal residential area in both Beijing and Shanghai. This to some degree hid that fact that the average personal residential area of low-and- medium-income families was shrinking.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, July 5, 2006)