Chinese city lifts housing purchase limits

XINING -- The northwestern Chinese city of Xining has joined dozens of others nationwide to scrap housing purchase restrictions in a bid to boost property markets, local authorities said Tuesday.

The municipal housing security and management bureau in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, lifted its 3.5-year-old restrictions on housing purchases ahead of "Golden September and Silver October," usually the busiest months for property sales.

There will be no restrictions on the number of houses people can buy, and home purchases will be open to both locals and non-locals, according to the bureau.

The city set home purchase rules in early 2011 allowing locals to own a maximum of two houses and limiting non-locals to one.

Of the 47 major cities that introduced purchase limits to cool the once-hot property market, 85 percent have removed them since June. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Sanya and Nanjing have yet to do so.

China's property market saw a weak first half of the year, prompting dozens of cities nationwide to remove housing purchase limits in a bid to revive sales and boost the economy.

Nationwide, property sales witnessed a steep decline in the Jan.-July period. Sales in terms of floor area dropped 7.6 percent year on year, 1.6 percentage points higher than the decline seen in the first half.

There is an oversupply of houses in more than a third of Chinese cities, including Xining, according to the latest report from Shenyin Wanguo Securities Co. Ltd.

In early 2011, China imposed housing purchase limits restricting local residents to two homes amid a spate of other measures to cool the real estate market.