2.  Ministry: Real estate regulations will not ease

The Chinese government will not relax efforts to control runaway housing prices, says Qi Ji, deputy minister of housing and urban-rural development, at a meeting held over the weekend.

The Chinese government will not relax efforts to control runaway housing prices, said Qi Ji, deputy minister of housing and urban-rural development, at a meeting held over the weekend. The ministry has dispatched inspectors to cities nationwide to encourage local governments to accelerate construction of affordable housing. Qi said he hopes the efforts will help China meet its goal of building 10 million new affordable housing units this year. "There's an imbalance in the pace of affordable housing construction across different regions," Qi said. "Insufficient funding also remains a major problem." Qi said in March affordable housing construction would require 1.3 to 1.4 trillion yuan. The private sector and those applying for affordable homes will put up 800 billion yuan. Local and central governments will have to make up the difference.