Since the Reform and Opening up, the Chinese people have basically solved the problems of feeding and clothing; but to the present time housing is still a huge social problem. In ordinary large and medium-size cities, the average living area per person is only 7 square meters. In some areas, the average living area is below 3 square meters. In recent years, China has built a large number of houses, but there appears a strange phenomenon: on the one hand, there are houses that nobody buys but on the other hand, there are people that do not have houses to live in ; at the same time there are also people who are given housing but do not live in it but rent out to other people in private. Why is this?

That there are houses that nobody buys is because the prices for houses are too high and residents cannot afford them. If residents would like to afford them, they have to save for 50 years. The international standard is that housing prices should be 3 to 6 times the household annual income. But in China it is 20 times.

The reasons for there to be people without housing are various. One reason is that, the Chinese population is large and it increases fast, but because economy develops slowly and there are few houses built, therefore they are always not enough.

There is another reason, which is that the former housing system has serious problems. Since 1949, China has not allowed private residences. The houses built by the state are not sold to private individuals, but are distributed by the government. Because the rent collected by the government is very low, everybody wants to have big houses and good houses. Some people with power then take advantage of the power they hold and assign good and big houses to themselves, their sons and even their grandsons. This then causes the situation of unequal opportunities. And there appears the strange phenomenon of some people without housing and some people not living in the houses assigned to them.

Experts in related fields point out that the fundamental solution for Chinese housing problem is to reform the housing system and commercialize houses. But as to how ordinary people can afford commercial housing, the government still needs to come up with many solutions. Therefore, housing will still remain a big problem in Chinese society for a long time to come.