According to the bureau's latest figures, 51.5 percent have either bought the State-owned housing they had been renting or bought accommodation in the commercial housing market.

Zhang Xueyuan, a public-relations officer with the bureau, said yesterday: "Housing reform has not progressed badly in Beijing. Most local people have accepted the idea of paying for their own housing."

The central government started a comprehensive reform of the country's largely State-owned housing system in the mid-1990s. Before that, Chinese people's employers allocated State-owned housing to them according to the employees' length of service and position.

The government decided to gradually end this practice and get urban residents to buy houses in the market.

Two kinds of housing are available on the market - so-called commercial housing and low-cost housing. Real-estate developers get a special development allowance from the government for low-cost housing.

Zhang attributed the successful implementation of the reform mainly to the steadily improving incomes of local people.

The per capita income of Beijing people has been increasing at an annual rate of more than 5 percent since the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, and the rate exceeded 10 percent over each of the past seven years.

"The increase was 13.4 percent for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year," Zhang said.

Zhang said he was also confident that more Beijing people will buy their own homes in the near future.

"Our survey has indicated strong confidence among local people regarding the economic future of the city and of the country," said Zhang. "Therefore, more and more people will buy bigger or more comfortable housing for a better life."

The bureau also reported that, out of China's 10 biggest cities, the expenditure of Beijing people was the highest for the first six months of this year, compared to 10th for the first half of last year.

However, Xu Jingchao, an official with the bureau's Social Services Division, said more low-cost housing was needed.

"It took time and effort to get people to accept buying housing as the way to improve their living conditions. But what if they go to the market only to find nothing they can afford? That would give them the heartfelt feeling of being cheated," said Xu.

(China Daily August 14, 2002)