A low-rent apartment must be smaller than 50 square meters, according to details of China's low-rent home system released by nine government departments in a paper yesterday.

The homes will mainly serve low-income families whose per capita living area is smaller than 10 square meters, said the departments including the Ministry of Construction, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the National Bureau of Statistics.

The homes should also be built along with ordinary apartments, the paper said.

Nearly 10 million families across the country would qualify, accounting for 5.5 percent of families in urban areas, the paper said.

The structure of the units will be adjusted in line with the needs of residents, the paper said.

The government will give priority to low-rent homes in land supply.

The Ministry of Construction has ruled that budget homes, low-rent homes and apartments under 90 square meters must account for at least 70 percent of total development.

Elders, those who suffer from serious illnesses and disabled people will receive priority to gain the low-rent homes, the paper said.

Residents can not sublet low-income homes. Those who don't live in the homes for six-straight months or don't pay the rent for six-consecutive months without a sound reason should return the units to the government, the paper said.

Billions of yuan will be put into the construction of low-rent homes this year, including 4.9 billion yuan (US$662 million) from the central government, Premier Wen Jiabao said last week while in Singapore.

More efforts will be made next year, added Wen.

The country has issued a string of policies to cool down the real estate boom, such as tightening credit to developers, increasing supervision over land use and enforcing tax policies.

Last month's average housing price in the mainland's 70 major cities jumped 9.5 percent on a yearly basis, compared with September's 8.9-percent growth rate.

(Shanghai Daily November 27, 2007)