Putting house prices in order

Local govts' attempts to prevent housing prices from falling will not succeed as market undergoes necessary adjustment

Housing authorities of Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, issued a document in late April that said residents with a hukou (household registration) in any of its five neighboring cities, such as Beihai, Qinzhou and Yulin, could buy homes in Nanning.

According to media reports, this is the first shot formally fired by a local government to rescue the housing market. To prevent speculation in the housing market and keep property prices in check, authorities in major cities have for years banned non-local residents from buying houses within their jurisdictions. Some earlier media reports had said that cities like Changsha, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Wenzhou were likely to relax rules for buying houses but relevant authorities denied them.