Government efforts, among all the hard work needed to help low-income earners get affordable housing, is of special importance, says a signed article in People's Daily. An excerpt follows:

It is a common phenomenon in countries witnessing high-speed economic boom that the estate price rises at an even faster rate.

The rocketing housing prices will probably cause estate speculation, which will in turn produce bubbles in real estate and cause potential financial crisis. More importantly, the medium- and low-income earners will find it difficult to get proper housing.

The government could play a much bigger role in controlling the real estate sector than in other industries. Such examples exist in countries around the world.

The government of the Republic of Korea took various measures in 2003 to regulate real estate. Its efforts soon resulted in a drop of average housing rent in the same year and a decrease in estate prices in 2004.

Singapore also has effective means to help low-income earners get housing. The governmental control was so strict that speculations on estates were almost avoided.

As urbanization and industrialization happen at the same time, it has become one of the basic functions of the government to help middle- and low-income earners find affordable housing. Both the Republic of Korea and Singapore successfully addressed the issue and their experiences should be an example.

Under the market economy, the estate price hike results from the huge gap between demand and supply for housing.

Besides this fundamental fact, another culprit is the profit from estate speculation, which may endanger the steady growth of the economy if not checked in time.

To keep the estate price down, the government should try to make the estate supply match its demand, while also reining in the estate speculation with effective supervision and well-targeted taxes to cut down speculation's profitability.

The widely used practices the government could apply to help the middle- and low-income earners include direct subsidies, low-price housing and low-rent housing.

But the government should first find efficient and honest crews to implement these practices.

A transparent and open system should also be built to guarantee the targeted group is able to enjoy the benefits supplied by the government.

(China Daily May 10, 2006)