Property prices remain high

Officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said soaring property prices are expected to remain constant over the next two years.

While government measures to control the property market are not immediately apparent, prices will stabilize as the land supply increases, Qin Hong, deputy director of the ministry's policy research center, was quoted on Thursday by Qilu Evening News as having said.

The land supply across the country this year is at least three times more than the average over the past five years, which will help ease the tension between supply and demand and calm the real estate market, she said.

However, as a whole, the measures are having varying effects in different cities, depending on their size. In big cities like Beijing, where people are swarming, it is to be expected that housing prices will be driven up by increased demand, she added.

Earlier this year, China took a series of measures to curb soaring property prices, but the market has yet to respond. In Beijing, sales of second-hand housing from Nov 22 to Nov 28 increased 16 percent on the previous week, Economic Information Daily reported.

In second-tier cities like Southwest China's Chongqing, the turnover during the same period increased by more than 25 percent, according to the report.

Qin said the reason why the control measures have yet to show signs of taking effect is because housing demand continues to grow at a faster rate than the available land supply.

Information released on Thursday by the China Index Academy shows housing prices rose from October to November in 86 of the 100 cities monitored across the country.

The three most expensive cities for housing prices are Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, while the average price in the top 10 cities is 15,407 yuan ($ 2,266) per square meter, the index shows.

Source: China Daily