Cuba has approved a law allowing individuals to buy and sell homes privately for the first time in 50 years, official media say. The law, which takes effect on 10 November, applies to citizens and permanent residents only. Correspondents say this is the most important reform so far in a series of free-market changes introduced by President Raul Castro. A housing shortage has meant that many Cubans live in overcrowded apartments. An article in the Communist Party daily Granma said details of the new law would be published in the government's Official Gazette. The change follows the legalisation in October of the purchase and sale of cars, though with restrictions that still make it hard for Cubans to buy new vehicles. The ban on property sales took effect in stages after Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959. Since no property market was allowed, the rules have meant that for decades Cubans could only exchange property through complicated barter arrangements, or through even murkier black-market deals. Raul Castro has said repeatedly that the system in Cuba is not working since he took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, but he has vowed that Cuba will remain a socialist state.