Local governments' mania to reap financial and political gains must be checked to get everyone properly sheltered, says a commentary in Nanfang Metropolis News. An excerpt follows:

Wang Guangtao, minister of construction, remarked at an international forum that shelter is a fundamental right of human beings and "everybody in China would enjoy proper housing."

The government stressed that the housing reform aims at getting proper housing for the needy. A plan was worked out that low-priced houses and low-rent apartments would be developed along with higher-end housing.

However, many people still find it hard to get housing. A large proportion of urban dwellers are burdened with heavy loans for housing mortgages. The low-price and low-rent housing does not reach low-income citizens.

By the end of last year, 145 cities in China did not have any low-rent housing. And the land designated for building the low-rent housing is actually shrinking.

When the supply of low-rent housing increases by 5 percent, the average housing estate price will drop by 3 to 4 percent. It is obvious why the localities are unwilling to see the rise in the supply of low-rent housing.

In this process, when the property prices keep roaring upward despite the public call for affordable housing, local officials are seeing bright records of their achievements while low-income people are left hoping in vain for housing.

Both the rocketing property prices and the slowness in providing low-rent housing result from the local governments' pursuit of financial benefits. It is also the origin of many other problems troubling the property industry and a root cause for destroying citizens' right to shelter.

(China Daily May 22, 2007)