China will levy a property tax sooner or later, and the
government may begin collecting as early as next year, the
Shanghai Securities News reported Wednesday, quoting Song
Chunhua, Chairman of the China Real Estate Association.
Government measures should encourage people to buy houses for
their own use and not for speculating and ensure affordable
housing, said Song at a property development forum. A property tax
could curb speculative investment activities by reducing the number
of idle properties and big houses, according to the chairman.
"If people want to live in big houses, they will need to pay
taxes to make compensation," said Song. "It demonstrates social
justice."
Establishing a property tax is imperative, said Gu Yunchang,
deputy director of the China Real Estate and Building Research
Institution, at the forum.
In October, prices for new residential apartments in China rose
by 10.6 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics from
the National Development and Reform Commission.
Curbing skyrocketing housing prices, to prevent a potential
property market bubble from bursting, was one of the highlights on
the agenda of the Central Economic Work Conference held last
week.
China has picked 10 provinces and cities, including Beijing and
Shenzhen, to institute property taxes on a trial basis in 2008,
according to sources with the Office of the Central Leading Group
on Financial and Economic Affairs, earlier media reported.
(China Daily December 13, 2007)
