A low-rent housing system tailored to low-income earners will cover all Chinese cities and towns this year.

By the end of 2006, 512 Chinese cities had established a low-rent housing system, accounting for 77.9 percent of the nation's total of 657. Money used to build low-rent houses cumulated to 7.08 billion yuan (919.5 million U.S. dollars) nationwide, nearly 50 percent more than the 2005 year end level.

By the end of last year, 547,000 low-income families had benefited from the low-rent housing system. Of the total, 219,000 households joined the system in 2006, a growth of 66.6 percent from 2005.