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, 512 of the 657 cities had set up the
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 mechanism 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 measures to cool off the
booming property market. They include an official mandate to build
more small- and medium-sized houses and strengthened land
appreciation tax collection on 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 small- and
medium-sized houses was far from enough.
Last month, housing prices in 70 large and medium cities rose
5.6 percent year on 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 urged that the secondary housing and rent markets be
developed to stabilize housing prices.
Beijing will build 10 million square meters of low-cost
affordable houses in the next three years, official figures
show.
And 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.
(China Daily February 26, 2007)