Housing price in 70 major Chinese cities jumped by 10.5 percent
in November, according to an official with the country's top
economic planning body.
The growth rate was the largest monthly rise since July 2005
when China started to cover more cities in its monthly housing
price survey.
From January to November, housing price grew by 7.3 percent
year-on-year, with price of new homes jumping 7.9 percent, Cao
Changqing, director of the pricing department under the National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said in an online
interview on Thursday.
The skyrocketing housing price, driven up by speculation and
growing demand, has become a major concern of common Chinese
citizens.
"Despite falling sales, housing prices in parts of Beijing,
Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen still remain high," he said.
Housing price is expected to remain stable as the macro-control
policies are starting to yield results, Cao said.
In recent years, the Chinese government introduced a string of
policies to cool off the red-hot real estate market, including
raising the down payments for second-house to 40 percent from 20
percent.
(China Daily December 15, 2007)
