Shanghai broadens home supply standards

A construction crew works at a housing project in Shanghai in June. WANG GANG/FOR CHINA DAILY Shanghai announced policies to optimize housing supply standards in order to better address new buying demand, said experts on Thursday. "The new criteria will give real estate developers more free play to optimize home designs in accordance with market needs, and it also echoes the new trend that homebuyers want more spacious and comfortable rooms," said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of the Shanghai E-House China Real Estate Research Institute. Experts said the new adjustments to the housing supply structure officially end the previous criteria under which the majority of newly developed housing units are sized between 90 and 100 sq m. "Larger-sized residential apartments will be built in Shanghai, and people will have more choices when they look to change living conditions," said Chen Julan, a senior analyst at the China Index Academy in Shanghai. Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Planning Institute's residential policy research center, said Shanghai's new housing standards are in line with the central authorities' latest stand and market trends.