Home>News Center>Life
         
 

Property bubble limited to some cities: official
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-24 08:54

China is experiencing a property bubble in some cities but it is not a nationwide phenomenon and the government is moving cautiously in reining in prices.

Residents in Nanjing, capital of East China's Nanjing Province, walk past a newly-constructed apartment building May 10, 2005. [newsphoto]
"Only some cities are experiencing a bubble and it's only in some cities that housing prices are rising relatively fast, but not in all cities," Zheng Jingping, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman, said.

"We want to regulate and curb excessive rises in housing prices but we're not absolutely intent on pulling down prices," he said as he delivered third-quarter growth figures.

Zheng did not specify which cities are experiencing a bubble but Shanghai is widely seen as a center of speculative activity.

Many economists have warned that some mainland cities are building up a dangerous property bubble that will eventually deflate, with severe consequences for the rest of the economy.

The government introduced measures in April aimed at cooling unrestrained growth in the sector.

Measures vary from city to city and include a capital gains tax depending on the length of a buyer's holding period, the banning of pre-completion sales and a tightening of land-use rights.

Shanghai this year enacted rules requiring home owners to pay off their mortgages before they can sell a property, while in March the floor lending rate for housing loans of five years or more was raised 20 basis points to 5.51 percent.

Homebuyers are now also required to come up with a down payment of 30 percent of the price, up from 20.

In another development, annual growth in urban Chinese property prices eased for a second straight month in September amid government efforts to cool the real estate sector, official figures showed Friday.

Overall property prices across 70 cities rose 5.5 percent in September from a year earlier, after rising an annual 6.3 percent in August and 6.4 percent in July, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a report on its Web site.

Compared with the previous month, overall property prices rose 0.6 percent in September, after rising 0.7 percent on the month in August and 0.4 percent in July.

Of the 70 cities included in the survey, 15 recorded falling prices on the month, led by a 1.2 percent drop in Shanghai, where prices fell 2.7 percent in July.

Annual property investment growth has slowed steadily to 22.2 percent in the January to September period from 26.7 percent in the first quarter.



Maggie calls for breast protection
New 'Harry Potter' movie may scare kids
Carina Lau hints at marriage
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

A true story about Taishi village incident

 

   
 

5,000 turn up at 'meet and mate' mega event

 

   
 

Beijing steps up efforts to fight bird flu

 

   
 

New rules issued for overseas investment

 

   
 

All 117 feared dead in Nigeria plane crash

 

   
 

Income-tax threshold likely to double

 

   
  1/4 Chinese women dissatisfied with sex: poll
   
  Scholars need money, time to get Nobel Prize
   
  Property bubble limited to some cities: official
   
  Rural Chinese pay price for ambition
   
  Mum locked girl up for two years
   
  China to limit HIV cases to 1.5m by 2010
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Unbearable burden of housing for urbanites
   
Shanghai to curb housing market price hike
   
Housing price growth slows down
   
Efforts to control housing prices continue
   
Major cities' housing price continue to grow
   
China's housing prices up 14.4% last year
   
China's housing price hike reasonable?
  Feature  
  Could China's richest be the tax cheaters?  
Advertisement