China to optimize use of villa construction land

China will further tighten villa construction land management, the Ministry of Land and Resources announced, according to the Guangzhou-based Xinxi Times.

Compared with previous regulations released as early as 2003, which suspended the land supply of detached villas, the new rules will target terraced houses, semi-detached houses, and garden houses.

The measure is going to make villas scarce in the future, said Xiong Xiaohong, an analyst with Centaline Property.

Xiong said the adoption of the universal second-child policy in China has kept driving the demand of villa sales, but villa owners are reluctant to sell their property.

Data from anjuke.com, an online property information services provider, has shown the market price of villas in Guangzhou, capital city of South China's Guangdong province, has seen an over 10 percent increase, especially in the outskirts of the city.

However, the villa sales in the city have seen a 20 percent drop in the first half of the year, compared to the same period of 2015.

The Chinese authorities have urged the local governments across the country to make better use of building land on Sunday.

Cities and towns should specify their land use objectives before the end of this year to ensure a 20 percent cut in construction land use per unit of GDP by 2020, Xinhua News Agency reported.

China has reduced construction land per unit of GDP by around 25 percent in the past five years.

Use of building land should be made more efficient through better use of inventories, market reform and stricter standards, said the statement by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the National Development and Reform Commission.