Economy

Guangzhou moves to curb rapid home price hike

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-16 11:30

GUANGZHOU - The Southern China boom town of Guangzhou Friday unveiled temporary restrictions on home purchases to curb excessive price rises, becoming the latest Chinese city to implement such measures.

Guangzhou authorities restricted families with residency status in the city to purchasing no more than one apartment.

They applied the same restriction to families without residency status who have paid personal income tax or made social security contributions in the city for at least one year.

Migrant families who cannot provide proof of having paid personal income tax or made social security contributions in the city for at least one year are barred from purchasing homes.

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This has been seen as the measure to prevent investors from excessively speculating on property market amid rapid price hikes.

Compared with other cities, the provincial capital of Guangdong province moved even further.

Since Friday, Guangzhou has banned persons younger than 18 years of age from buying homes, said Huang Wenbo, spokesman for the Guangzhou land and housing management bureau.

"We believe home purchases by adolescents are unreasonable and premature consumption. They should be curbed," Huang added.

To check soaring property prices, the central government rolled out a raft of new measures on Sept 29, including the suspending of loans for third-home purchases.

Housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 9.1 percent year-on-year in September, the slowest growth rate this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

But the prices rose 0.5 percent in September from August, the first month-on-month gain since June.