China's State Council has decided to send high-level officials to 11 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions to check on how the central government's macro control policies aimed at cooling down red hot property markets are being enforced.

 

Teams of officials from the ministries of Construction, Land and Resources, the National Development and Reform Commission and other central authorities will be sent to Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Sichuan and Shaanxi.

 

The Chinese government began issuing policies in 2003 to stabilize the runaway property market.

 

Housing prices in many cities, however, have defied macro control policies and continued to soar. Some have reported annual rises of 20 percent.

 

In the face of rising public concern, the government earlier this year penned tougher new policies, ordering local governments to increase the supply of smaller houses and government-subsidized houses, and imposing controls on property ownership by foreigners, among other measures.

 

In a related development, the Ministry of Construction has sent its own teams of officials to Shanghai and seven other cities to investigate the local property markets.

 

A six-member team arrived in Shanghai on Sept. 25, where they met with local officials and residents, and toured property projects.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2006)