Top think tank advocates better housing security

BEIJING - China's top think tank has advocated market-led regulation of land supply for better housing security, according to its report released Wednesday.

The report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the newspaper Economic Information, said the average house price rose 8.5 percent year on year in the first three quarter of this year, while sales totalled 754 million square meters, up 23 percent from the same period in 2013.

New different regulations are required as to equalize land supply between first and second tier cities and the less populous third and fourth tier to balance the urbanization and stabilize house prices.

The report advocates weakening of the power of local government and State-owned enterprises in the land market through integrating the urban and rural construction land markets and supporting small and medium real estate companies.

The market's role in resource allocation has to be enhanced along with stricter legal supervision, especially for affordable housing construction, according to the report. The long-term task in land reform falls on the the tax system, household registration and legislation.

Zhang Zhuoyuan of CASS believes that the ceaseless rise in house prices reveals the limited effects of administrative regulations. Low efficiency in use and management of the housing fund and lack of transparency remain obstacles to housing security, Zhang added.

Cai Jiming, director of the Center for Political Economy at Tshinghua University, regards more focus on supply as a better and natural way to stabilize house prices and tackle speculation.

The report also said the problem of migrant workers with relatively lower incomes needs to be addressed with basic rights and household registration.

Meanwhile, the credit market can play a bigger role by expanding financing channels for the real estate industry, injecting capital into affordable housing and mitigating risk.