China to rebuild six mln urban shanty houses this year

China is capable of meeting the target because this year's tasks are better defined and we started earlier, Chen Zhenggao, head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, announced at a press conference.

The government will offer more financial support to support the purchase of existing homes rather than building new property, especially in third- and fourth-tier cities and counties, Chen pointed out.

About half of the residential renovation target was achieved last year thanks to financial support to buy existing property, which helped reduce the housing inventory.

China committed to rebuilding 18 million houses from 2015 to 2017 and aims to "generally finish" the renovation work across the country by the end of 2020.