China's home price growth rate will probably slow down to less than 5 percent this year after its wild run since 2004, says the Blue Book of Real Estate 2007, which was released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on April 27..

"Stabilizing the home price is still the fundamental part of the 2007 macro-controling measures, and containing the home price rise is an important criterion of gauging the effectiveness of macro-control," says the report, which has been published by Social Sciences Academic Press for the past four years.

The central government's intensive cooling down measures were effective last year, the report has said.

Last year, the average property price rise in 70 major cities was 5.5 percent year-on-year, down 2.1 percentage points from a year earlier, even though a few cities like Beijing and Shenzhen saw a double-digit growth.

The continuous price rise would prompt the government to adopt more detailed policies aimed especially at lowering the price, says the report that was published last week.

The government has already stressed the importance of building more affordable houses with its help.

As part of the policy, more economy and low-rent houses, and those with price ceilings, will be built with government subsidy this year to provide shelter to low-income families.

"A sound social security system of houses has not yet been set up. It is a serious problem and must be solved by our government," former vice-minister of construction Yang Shen has said.

(China Daily May 2, 2007)