Xiongan better serves residents' housing needs

Yan Fusheng is looking forward to moving into the new apartment he just bought in Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei province because his 2-year-old daughter will be able to go to a nearby kindergarten next year.

The 32-year-old man started working in the new area in early 2021 as one of the many employees relocated to Xiongan from Beijing along with their employers.

As an employee of China Railway Construction Group Co's Xiongan Development Co, he qualified to buy an apartment in the area last month.

"I feel both lucky and excited to be able to settle down in the new area," Yan said, adding that he and his family plan to become Xiongan residents because of the area's first-class infrastructure and convenient public services.

In 2017, China announced its plans to build the Xiongan New Area at a site about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing. Six years on, the area has transformed from three ordinary counties — Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin — into a modern city with a number of high-end projects, which have either been completed or are in various phases of construction.

The new area was established to help advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region by taking over a major part of Beijing's non-capital functions — those that are nonessential to the city's role as the Chinese capital.

Huawangcheng, the residential community where Yan bought his apartment, is Xiongan's first real estate project aimed at providing accommodations to people such as Yan, who came to work in the new area as employees of relocated enterprises from Beijing.

In addition to buying the apartments, relocated employees of various companies can also rent them, according to Wang Jinyu, a service counselor for China Xiongan Group City Development Co, developer of Huawangcheng.

Xiongan plans to build 13 housing projects with a total construction area of 4.56 million square meters, providing different types of accommodations, including commercial apartments and affordable rental housing, to people who work in the new area, according to the area's WeChat account.

The projects can accommodate about 130,000 people. Among these, more than 40,000 apartments are either under construction or have been completed, it said.

The first group of real estate projects is aimed at making people in Xiongan, especially those coming from Beijing, feel the area's support for their housing needs, and ensuring that they can live well, according to Xiongan New Area's Housing Management Center.

Yan said he already feels at home. Less than 200 meters from his new apartment, there is a new kindergarten, which is among many support facilities being provided to residents.

"That (the kindergarten) is the biggest draw for me. Besides, the residential community has a good environment and various commercial facilities," Yan said.

Yan's wife has also come to Xiongan. In the future, the family of three will live in an apartment of 112 square meters, with less living pressure than in Beijing, he said.

According to Yan, he lived in Beijing from 2014 to 2020. After renting accommodations for four years, Yan bought an apartment of 50 sq m in the capital's Fangshan district in 2018 and got married the next year.

"That apartment was far away from my workplace and the living pressure was very high for us," he said.