China mulls rules to check profiteering in property sector
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The State Council has adopted a series of measures since last year to tame housing prices, including higher down payment requirements, raising interest rates, direct restrictions on home purchases, the establishment of price control targets, third-home purchase bans and a trial real estate tax in Shanghai and Chongqing, two of China's biggest cities.
The government's measures appear to be working, as some cities reported decreased property trade volumes and month-on-month declines in property prices, but overall prices have not dropped significantly, said Yang Hongxu, an analyst with the Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institute.
Property control policies are at a critical period and more efforts should be made to tighten these policies, Yang said.
The State Council recently ended a nationwide supervision campaign concerning local governments' housing price control efforts.
Some cities reported lower or flattened housing prices in March, but most cities saw housing prices increase, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Chen Guoqiang, director of the real estate research institute of Peking University, said it will take time for the market to digest these new policies.
The magnitude of the effects of the policies depend heavily on interactions between real estate companies, local governments and the central government, Chen said.
The key now is not to map out new policies, but to tighten current ones, Chen said.
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