Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan has pledged to stabilize soaring property prices by putting up more real estate for sale, standardizing the market, and offering more and better houses to low-income families.

Speaking at a recent State Council meeting on Beijing's property market, Zeng said: "The Beijing municipal government should channel more funds into low-rent housing schemes and standardize the construction, sale and distribution of low-cost affordable houses."

By the end of last year, of 657 cities 512 had set up a low-rent housing scheme, and the Ministry of Construction ordered that it be extended to the rest of the country this year.

The meeting emphasized a combination of market mechanisms and governmental regulations, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. It's the government's responsibility to solve the basic housing problem of the low-income group, participants said.

The central government has taken additional measures to settle down the booming property market. They include an official mandate to build more small and medium-sized houses and strengthened efforts to collect land appreciation tax from developers.

Though the meeting was told that overall, the housing market had cooled down, with speculation being curbed, property prices in some major cities were still rising and the supply of moderately sized houses was far from enough.

Last month, housing prices in 70 large and medium cities rose 5.6 percent compared to last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, with those in Beijing jumping 9.9 percent.

Zeng said the government would continue regulating the property market and crack down on those involved in hoarding, bidding up housing prices, and committing contract frauds. He stressed that the secondary housing and rent markets must be developed to stabilize housing prices.

Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan said last month the city would begin building low-rent houses with a total floor space of 300,000 square meters this year, with the ultimate goal of 10 million square meters in the next three years.

(China Daily February 26, 2007)