While researchers are promoting implementing a property tax, experts said a housing official's latest remarks on the effectiveness of current measures hint that property tax policies might not be enacted any time soon.

"The authority is mulling implementing a property tax, and it will not prompt housing prices to soar," Jia Kang, head of the research institute for Fiscal Science with the Ministry of Finance, said in a forum held in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province Saturday, without specifying the exact date.

Earlier he told People's Daily that the time was right to introduce a property tax, as it would offer local governments a more stable source of revenue to support public services, as well as combat property speculation.

Ji Huaiyin, deputy director of the fiscal and finance department under the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office, also told Xinhua News Agency last week that a property tax should be implemented as early as possible, in a gradual fashion.

However, experts said a property tax might not be released soon after a housing official said current measures have worked well.

"Recent measures in the property market have curbed excessive home price rises in some cities," Qi Ji, vice minister at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said in an online discussion with Internet users on the central government's official site Friday.

Qi was referring to measures including more restrictive down-payment requirements, higher loan rates, a ban on lending for third home purchases and tighter scrutiny of developers' financing.

"Excessive gains in prices are mainly due to a shortage of supply and are responsible for a major part of unreasonable demand," Qi said. "The government will strictly carry out current measures to curb such demand."

"Qi's remarks show that there might not be new policies on the property market, including implementing a property tax, released in the short term, due to difficulties such as identifying people's property ownership," Ying Bocheng, director of the real estate research center of Fudan University, said Sunday.

Ying said housing prices have stopped soaring in major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, but the potential risk of a rebound will remain if current policies are not implemented well.

"Property transaction volumes in some cities have decreased by 30-40 percent, but housing prices have not dropped much," he said.

Property transactions in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province plummeted 13.7 percent year-on-year in April, and transaction prices have decreased by 5-10 percent, Pan Wenhui, assistant director of the Nanjing Municipal Real Estate Bureau, said at a news conference Saturday.

Among 57 new pre-sale property projects available since March, there were 20 projects that had not been involved in any transactions as of Thursday, according to figures from Centaline Property's research center.

Ying said property transaction volumes should plummet as much as 90 percent in metropolises with housing bubbles.

"By then property developers will lower housing prices, and it is reasonable for housing prices to drop to the levels seen in 2008," he said.

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