By AFP | Mar 19, 2010

Cash-strapped Chinese living in shipping containers

Rocketing house prices in China's booming south are forcing low-earners to turn to cheap homes made out of shipping containers, state press said Friday.

Clusters of container villages are cropping up around the boomtown of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, where real estate prices can rise as high as 20,000 yuan (2,900 dollars) per square metre, the People's Daily said on its website.

But an 18 square metre (193 square feet) container can be rented for an entire year for just over 2,000 yuan, the report said.

The containers, fitted with kitchens, bathrooms and windows, are gaining popularity among migrant labourers, builders and students, it said.

The fad follows a trend in New York and London where containers are used as the building blocks for apartments, the report said.