Top Biz News

House prices 'harming building of harmony'

By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-30 10:45

"The housing issue is causing social panic and runs against the efforts of building a harmonious society," he said following the release of the annual report yesterday in Beijing.

The "crazy" price hike has occurred against a backdrop of measures that the central government put into place to cap housing prices over the past two years, and even inShanghai, whose residents' income is higher than Beijing's, housing prices have begun to plummet, Dai said.

Compared with 2005, the transaction price of land for residential construction in Beijing in fact dropped by 12 percent last year, when there was no marked price rise in building materials, meaning real estate developers were "profiteering", Dai said.

"If the current government policies fail to meet their goal, there will come more stringent regulations, which, instead of curbing the margin of increase as hoped by realty developers, would trigger a drop in housing prices," Dai predicated in his report.

Dai said the government's regulations on the real estate market, enaced two years ago, conforms to the will and interests of the public, but no substantial changes have taken place since then, resulting in a kind of "wrestling match" between property developers, the government and consumers.

The public has pinned their hopes on the central authorities to resolve the housing issue, which is one of their top concerns, he said.