Shenzhen will set aside up to 1.041 square kilometers of land for commercial development this year, an increase of more than 30 percent over last year, yesterday's Daily Sunshine reported.

The 1.041 square kilometers of new land is located outside the special economic zone (SEZ), of which 0.588 square kilometer is in Bao'an District while 0.453 square kilometer is in Longgang District, the report said.

The move marks the fifth year that no land has been supplied for commercial development inside the SEZ.

According to the land supply plan for 2006, which was unveiled recently, a total of 28.29 million square meters of land will be made available for development in Shenzhen this year, officials with the municipal land and property administration bureau told the Daily Sunshine.

The supply of new land for commercial development will help cool down the property prices in Shenzhen, the officials were quoted as saying.

For commercial housing development within the SEZ, high hopes have been placed on the renovation of urban villages, according to the land supply plan. Besides, 400,000 square meters of land will be reserved for providing housing for low-income residents over the next few years.

The Shenzhen Municipal Government is now considering establishing a housing guarantee mechanism and will gradually build and purchase "government-sponsored public housing" to provide affordable housing for low-income families, said Luo Ping, one of the compilers of the land supply plan and head of the land research institute under the municipal real-estate research center.

Editor: Yan