Microblog insights

Topic 1: On Feb 20, Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to keep property price controls in place - such as curbs on the purchase of residential housing for investment purposes and by expanding the scope of a trial property tax. The pledges were named "guowutiao", or "five points from the State Council" in China's media. At the same time, around three-quarters of China's major cities saw price rises for both new and pre-owned housing in January, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. The average price growth rate among the cities was 4.7 percent, up from last month's 2.4 percent, the NBS figures revealed.

Li Wenjie: The guowutiao is less stringent than previously expected. The government is just shouting upstairs but we did not see the landing of another shoe. We did not see any rhetoric regarding returning to reasonable house prices, which was included in the previous announcement. This may mean the government's target is actually stable and slight growth for prices. So if you want to buy a house, hurry up.

Mao-Jack: The government's "adjust and control" only increased the buying cost of those who want to buy a house for owner-occupier purposes. And the expectation of further government curbs only disappointed those potential home buyers and caused them to miss the best time to buy.