住房(zhù fáng) - housing, housing accommodation in Mandarin

住房 (zhùfáng) is housing, from 住 (zhù, to live, to reside) and 房 (fáng, house, room, building). It names housing as a category or a social issue, not one specific house.

That distinction matters: 房子 (fángzi) is the ordinary word for an actual house or flat you could point at, while 住房 (zhùfáng) is the abstract or policy sense, as in 住房问题 (zhùfáng wèntí), the housing problem, or 住房价格 (zhùfáng jiàgé), housing prices.

It also compounds into 住房贷款 (zhùfáng dàikuǎn), a housing loan or mortgage, and 保障性住房 (bǎozhàngxìng zhùfáng), subsidised or affordable housing, both common in news coverage of property markets.