Low-rent housing should be rented out at prices prescribed by the government and affordable to urban low-income families, according to a regulation recently enacted bythe National Reform and Development Commission.

The promulgation of the new regulation on the management of urban low-rent housing, which determines that rent is composed of housing maintenance and management cost, is to ensure that low-income families have houses to live in, said an official with the commission Thursday.

When local governments fix rents, they should hear opinions from the public, says the regulation.

But families who continue to live in government low-rent housesafter their incomes improve should pay as much as the rent for commercial houses.

China began to promote the low-rent housing system in 1998.

In the past year, China witnessed rocketing housing prices. The average housing price jumped 14.4 percent in 2004, up 10.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Source: Xinhua