China needs more affordable housing: report

BEIJING - China should increase affordable housing supply and expand its pilot property tax reforms, according to a report released Wednesday by a government think tank.

As more rural migrants move to cities, the government should increase the supply of low-priced housing to guarantee "affordable, reasonable and suitable living space" for all people resident in cities, according to "Housing Security in the New Urbanization Background" published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The report said that the major conflict for the Chinese property market is structural, with the biggest problem being that home prices are unaffordable and there are not enough affordable homes.

The think tank suggested the government speed up public housing construction, introduce differentiated property tax policies and expand its pilot property tax reforms beyond Shanghai and Chongqing.

The government should levy property tax on all homes featuring more than 40 square meters per person, the report said.

The nation should rely on economic and market forces rather than administrative measures to manage its property market in the long run, according to the report.

In October, half of 70 major Chinese cities recorded higher new home prices than a month earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.