The city government of Guangzhou will auction off nine plots of
land later this month and early next month to be used for
residential development.
The move follows the auctioning off of nine other plots in June.
Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning said yesterday that the city
government will work to rein in surging housing prices and build
more "economical houses" for the city's extremely poor families by
the end of this year.
"The government wants to keep housing prices at a rational level
so most people can afford to buy their own homes," he said. "The
city government will increase the land supply for residential
apartment developments and streamline procedures for housing
approvals."
The 18 pieces of land the city government has targeted for the
auction block will have an area of 119,000 sq m, which will be
enough to accommodate more than 4,500 residential apartments.
It will auction a further 13 pieces of urban land in the second
half of this year, covering an area of about 518,000 sq m. The land
will accommodate about 9,000 residential apartments.
"These 13,500 residential apartments are expected to help
stabilize housing prices in the city," said Han Shitong, an analyst
with the Guangzhou Real Estate Association.
Primarily because of the tight supply, the per-square-meter
price of housing in the city climbed to 11,331 yuan for new
apartments in urban areas last month, up 956 yuan from May. That
was the biggest jump in a single month in recent years.
The government is also working to crack down on fraud by
developers and is planning to spend 1.5 billion yuan to build
housing for the poor families. It is also reclaiming unused
land.
(China Daily July 11, 2007)