The majority of Chinese people are feeling the pinch of buying an apartment under the current high prices, with 91 percent saying they were unsatisfied with their region's housing prices, People's Daily reported Monday.

A survey of more than 46,000 participants on the newspaper's website, people.com.cn, found 73 percent were "deeply unsatisfied" with the housing prices and 18 percent "unsatisfied."

The ridiculously high housing prices can't match most people's income, the newspaper cited a comment posted by a netizen named Jin Zhongru.

A house is a necessity for all, and it is the government's duty to ensure affordable prices for its citizens, Jin said. The survey also found 75 percent of people can accept housing prices below 8,000 yuan ($1,200) per square meters, 51 percent below 4,000 yuan, but only 9.7 percent above 12,000 yuan.

Liu Hongyu, head of the real estate research center at Tsinghua University, said the findings indicate there is a big gap between people's purchasing power and the housing price but it doesn't necessarily mean more than 90 percent of Chinese families can't afford an apartment because every survey taker will judge the price by his or her own standard.

It is the market rules that make buyers wish the prices to be as low as possible to cut their expense of buying a house, Liu said.

Nearly 50 percent of the survey takers said they would buy an apartment less than 90 sq m in size if they can afford it, and 45.5 percent said they expect to have an apartment between 91 and 130 sq m.

The central government has issued a series of policies in a bid to cool down the housing market, but most people believe the policies have met with local governments' counter-measures and were not effectively implemented.

A total of 74 percent of the survey takers said local governments didn't fulfill their duties in carrying out the central government's housing policies, 68.4 percent said the policies were not effectively implemented and 66.6 percent believe housing regulators didn't give enough punishment to unscrupulous real estate developers.

Sixty-four percent of the survey takers said they believe housing prices will continue to rise this year and 95 percent said they won't buy an apartment within the next three months.

Housing prices will continue a rising trend in the long term despite some fluctuations in the short run because of China's fast economic development and urbanization pace, Liu said.

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