ONE in four Shanghai citizens lives in a new house, according to Xinhua (the New China News Agency).
The agency said statistics had shown 1.5 million urban residents, or a quarter of the urban population, had moved into houses built between 1993 and 1995.
These buildings had a combined floor space of more than 20 million square metres.
A municipal government official in charge of housing said that the city has demolished dilapidated houses with a combined floor space of more than 60 million sq ft in the city in recent years, while erecting modern buildings.
Xinhua said the residents had spent an average of 10,000 yuan (about HK$9,292) to 100,000 yuan each on decorating their new flats.
A survey showed that Shanghai's residents spent more than two billion yuan on housing decoration a year.