Oversized affordable houses built exclusively for officials  

经适房变身大户型专供邢台党政机关

温馨家园小区是河北省邢台市的一项重要安居工程。近日，该小区的施工方举报称，开发商将原本设计图纸为80平米以下的经济适用房型，更改为100平方米以上的大户型进行施工，最大建筑面积超260平方米，还配有车库。小区被邢台市党政机关多个单位团购一空。经适房，最终成了机关单位的福利房。[查看全文]

(ECNS) – Apartments in an affordable housing project in Xingtai, Hebei province, are much larger than they should be, and all of them have been sold to officials from local government departments and institutions, according to the Beijing Times.

Most of the affordable housing units in the Wenxin Jiayuan (Sweet Homeland) community range from 100 to 200 square meters. However, the largest ones are over 260 square meters, a homeowner in the community said.

According to China's regulations on affordable housing, such apartments should be no larger than 80 square meters.

Tian Yongbin, the son of a labor contractor who was in charge of building houses in the community, said the developer had sold the houses exclusively to local officials.

"According to the original blueprints, four apartments were allocated to each floor. But later the developer asked us to change the number to two," Tian added.

The project was halted by a local construction quality watchdog in June 2007 on the grounds that the size of the houses had been enlarged without authorization. But eventually the project was approved by the local construction bureau.

An investigation into the project is underway.