China to Promote Housing Sales

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China will take new measures to promote the sales of the idle housing, according to the Ministry of Construction.

A spokesman for the ministry said that the General office of the State Council, China's cabinet, has recently issued a circular to various provinces and regions, urging them to promote the sales of idle housing.

Those housing may be sold or rented at lower prices or may be used to settle the people as required by relevant government policies, the circular said.

Sellers of those housing before the end of next year will be exempt from all the charges and business tax, the circular said.

Meanwhile, banks will cut down or write off the interest fines of the overdue loans to State or State share-holding real estate development businesses.

Statistics from the Ministry of Construction show that the country's idle housing totalled a floor space of 80 million square meters at the end of last year.