Beijing's Affordable Housing Crisis

One college teacher "pitched a tent and lived in it for more than 50 days" -– just "waiting for a chance to buy an affordable house." At a new development, property managers received 3,285 applications for only 441 slots. Overall, "only 4.61 per cent of the total investment on properties in the city in 2004 was for affordable housing...Meanwhile, rising demand for cheaper housing has surged to 11 million square metres, due to the city planning, reconstruction and new road projects in Beijing." And because the definition of "low-income" residents who require affordability is vague, increasingly more middle-class citizens are able to secure the affordable housing stock.