Regulations to monitor real estate market

The construction watchdog has released a series of policies to regulate the parties involved with real estate projects, a move to guarantee building safety and control illegal behavior in the market.

The developer, construction unit, design institute, engineering investigation unit and the construction supervision unit have had their detailed responsibilities stipulated in the trial regulations set out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on March 6.

The regulations state that legal representatives from these units need to report to government departments and supervisory bodies when they find misbehavior and illegal deals in projects.

All the regulations aim to ensure the parties involved perform responsibly and guarantee the quality of buildings, Liu Xiaoyan, deputy head of the Department of Construction Market Supervision under the ministry, said on Monday.

In addition, the regulation forbids the construction unit from illegally subcontracting projects to other teams to make profits and lower building quality.

It has also been found that some registered engineering designers have made money by loaning their certificates to some institutes they do not work for.

The ministry has launched a two-year inspection on the quality of all buildings nationwide in September to improve building safety and regulate the real estate market.

These trial regulations are important supplementary tools to fuel the inspection, said Zeng Xianxin, deputy head of the Department of Construction Engineering Quality and Safety Supervision of the ministry.

The inspection has drawn more attention after the collapse of a steel structure at a construction site in Beijing that killed 10 on Dec 29.