Tianjin to keep tight leash on new home purchases

As authorities reiterated their efforts to control property prices, tighter controls on home purchases are expected to continue in Tianjin, notwithstanding the northern Chinese city's efforts to attract more young talent with friendly policies.

The city's land resource and housing administration said earlier this week that they would strictly implement measures to control real estate prices, stabilize the overall market and free up more land resources.

"More resolute efforts will be taken to control the speculation," said an official statement from the agency.

In particular, local authorities plan to enlarge the total land supply, offer more low-priced, small and medium-sized dwellings for general use housing and substantially increase the land supply for leased housing.

"More specific measures will be carried out later, given that Tianjin's talent introduction policies were just issued and the real estate market is still fluctuating," Zhang Dawei, chief analyst with Centaline Property predicted.

"Policies to attract leading professionals always benefit the property market. Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province saw real estate prices rise by 1.6 percent in April after it issued friendly policies to attract talent. Chengdu's sustained property boom has also been driven by similar preferential policies," Zhang said.

He said that the latest policies in Tianjin will probably spur a combined housing purchase demand of 100,000 units. "In the long run, the new policies will boost the property market, and specific steps are expected to be taken by the local administration."

To control the property market, local authorities have urged real estate developers to start construction as soon as possible and barred illegal developers from selling houses.

"Developers hiking property prices and circumventing regulations will face fines and disbarment," said an official release from the Tianjin land resource and housing administration.

On May 16, Tianjin came out with talent attraction policies that made it easy for graduates below the age of 40, those with a master's degree but below the age of 45, and those with a doctoral degree or above, who plan to work or start their own businesses in the city, to get a hukou, or a permanent residency permit.

Wang Wei, assistant dean of the urban construction institute with the Tianjin University of Commerce, said the new hukou policies will add fresh impetus to the property market, in particular, benefiting those people who will bring their children to the city to get an opportunity to sit the gaokao, the national entrance examination, in the city, as admission grades are much lower than some other provinces.

According to Yang Guang, head of the Tianjin Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, in the first 24 hours after the policies were issued, nearly 300,000 people applied for hukou in Tianjin.

"Hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to Tianjin to apply for permanent residency. Each day, the government authorities work till 2 am to help qualified people get a hukou. To date, some 6,500 people have been certified," said Yang.

Currently, transaction volumes and housing prices in Tianjin's property market have more or less remained stable, and related control policies are being strictly implemented, the authorities said.