Economy

Beijing maps out home prices control target

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-30 19:31

BEIJING- Beijing has been determined to stabilize or lower new home prices in 2011 with what is considered the most ambitious housing price control target among those issued by more than 40 Chinese cities.

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The government will keep prices of new homes, mainly apartments with an area less than 90 square meters, steady or declining this year, according to a statement posted on its website Tuesday night.

It will enhance supplies of indemnificatory apartments, including low-rent housing and public rental housing, said the statement.

Pan Shiyi, a Chinese real estate tycoon, said in a blog entry on Wednesday that Beijing was the first city that had targeted price decline, which was "utterly unexpected."

Many cities said they would limit the rise of new home prices to around 10 percent in 2011.

Mou Zengbin, director of Beijing Yiju Real Estate Research Institute, said that Beijing's bold move demonstrates the capital city's resolve in bringing sky-rocketing home prices down to a reasonable level.

The targets were issued after the State Council, or China's Cabinet, required city governments to establish new home price control targets based on local economic growth and disposable income increase, and make them public in the first quarter of 2011.

Chen Zhi, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Real Estate Association, said the government would strive to achieve the target by securing land supplies, 70 percent of which would be used to build indemnificatory apartments and small and medium-sized commodity apartments.

The government would also continue to counter speculation and strictly implement the latest house purchase limits it rolled out in February, Chen added.