China to curb rise of housing prices 2011-03-05

(Xinhua) （Copy from chinadaily）
2011-03-05
BEIJING -- The Chinese government will firmly curb the excessively rapid rise of housing prices in some cities this year, says a government work report to be delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday, intensifying the determination to cool the country's red-hot property market.
The government aims to "genuinely stabilize housing prices and meet the reasonable demands of residents for housing", reads the report distributed to the media before the opening of the annual session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC).
"We will further implement and improve policies for regulating the real estate market and firmly curb the excessively rapid rise of housing prices in some cities," the report says.
The government will formulate and announce an annual housing development plan, designate sites for building low-income housing in the plan for new construction sites, and make sure that all designated sites are used to develop low-income housing. Emphasis will be placed on building more ordinary small and medium-sized commodity housing units.
More low-income housing will be built this year. The total number of units of new low-income housing and units in run-down areas that will undergo renovation will reach 10 million, and 1.5 million dilapidated rural houses will be renovated, according to the report.
The government will also give priority to developing public rental housing, with allocation of 103 billion yuan in this year's budget for subsidies to support the work, an increase of 26.5 billion yuan over last year. The report asks governments at all levels to raise funds through various channels and substantially increase spending in these areas.
The report says the government will strictly implement differentiated housing credit and tax policies and tighten tax collection, and effectively curb speculative and investment purchases of housing.
It also requests local governments have direct responsibility for stabilizing housing prices and guaranteeing the availability of low-income housing. Localities that put insufficient effort into stabilizing housing prices and promoting the construction of low-income housing and thereby affect social development and stability will be held accountable.