The city government of Guangzhou will auction off nine plots of land later this month and early next month to be used for residential development.

The move follows the auctioning off of nine other plots in June. Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning said yesterday that the city government will work to rein in surging housing prices and build more "economical houses" for the city's extremely poor families by the end of this year.

"The government wants to keep housing prices at a rational level so most people can afford to buy their own homes," he said. "The city government will increase the land supply for residential apartment developments and streamline procedures for housing approvals."

The 18 pieces of land the city government has targeted for the auction block will have an area of 119,000 sq m, which will be enough to accommodate more than 4,500 residential apartments.

It will auction a further 13 pieces of urban land in the second half of this year, covering an area of about 518,000 sq m. The land will accommodate about 9,000 residential apartments.

"These 13,500 residential apartments are expected to help stabilize housing prices in the city," said Han Shitong, an analyst with the Guangzhou Real Estate Association.

Primarily because of the tight supply, the per-square-meter price of housing in the city climbed to 11,331 yuan for new apartments in urban areas last month, up 956 yuan from May. That was the biggest jump in a single month in recent years.

The government is also working to crack down on fraud by developers and is planning to spend 1.5 billion yuan to build housing for the poor families. It is also reclaiming unused land.

(China Daily July 11, 2007)