GUANGZHOU: The Guangdong provincial government is resolved to rein in the property market by increasing land supply and building more economic houses for low-income families, said Vice-Governor Lin Musheng.

He was speaking at a working conference this week in the city of Zhuhai, which focused on measures to cool down the province's overheated property market.In the remaining months of the year, the government will increase land supply for property development and build more economic houses for the province's myriad of low-income families, said Lin.

Meanwhile a cross-department inspection campaign will be launched to crack down on law-breaking property developers and illegal price hikes.

The move aims to pay the ground for a healthy development of the property market in the province which borders the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

According to Lin, Guangdong would build economic housing flats for more than 14,000 low-income urban families this year and another 100,000 families in 2008.

The province has established a housing monetary distribution system and public housing reserve fund to help urban residents having housing difficulties.

By the end of September, Guangdong has spent 8.52 billion yuan in housing allowance to urban residents and approved more than 39.36 billion yuan in mortgage loans to urban residents.

The special working conference was held at a time when the province's property price has risen to a record level in major cities since the beginning of the year.

In Guangzhou, the provincial capital and the city of Shenzhen, the average property price has reached more than 12,000 yuan per square meter.

And the price for luxury apartments at prime locations of the two metropolises have soared up to more than 20,000 yuan per square meter, coming close to the price level in Shanghai and Beijing.

Now a three-bedroom apartment house easily carries a price tag of 1 million yuan in the city proper of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Experts expected the cities's property price to stay on an upward trend in the second half of the year.

While many people seeking to buy their first property have been discouraged by the soaring price level, the richer group are going for a second property or a bigger one.

(HK Edition 11/03/2007 page3)