Authorities in China's largest city have ordered that families be allowed to only purchase one home each, part of a series of moves aimed at cooling surging property prices. The new rule for Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million, took effect on October 7. China's capital, Beijing, imposed a similar one home per family restriction in April.
Authorities in China's largest city have ordered that families be allowed to only purchase one home each, part of a series of moves aimed at cooling surging property prices. The new rule for Shanghai, a city of more than 20 million, took effect on October 7. China's capital, Beijing, imposed a similar one home per family restriction in April. The tightening measures come on the back of consistently high property prices that have kept many home buyers away from the realty market.(NYT Photo)
Visitors speaking to a real estate company worker at a real estate fair in Shanghai. The step taken by the city – one of the first cities to officially impose a residential property tax – comes after the State Council in September ordered banks not to provide loans for third home purchases.(AP Photo)
With their investment options limited by various government restrictions, many urban Chinese families purchase apartments in hopes of getting higher returns on their savings than the paltry interest paid by banks on savings accounts.
Overall, housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 9.3 per cent in August from the year before. (NYT Photo)
Apart from restricting property owners to one home, Shanghai has raised the land-appreciation tax that developers pay. Many of the apartments, often owned by out-of-towners, sit empty. That limits supply relative to demand and is blamed for driving prices beyond the reach of many families, a trend seen as a threat both to political stability and to the financial system. (NYT Photo)
A worker handles materials at a construction site in Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi province. China action is aimed at cooling the real-estate property market that some fear is frothing into a bubble. (AP Photo)
Visitors observe the high-rise buildings at Pudong New Development Zone in Shanghai. Beijing and Shenzhen have already taken measures to restrict the number of homes a household can own, underlining the growing frustration among authorities over property prices that remain stubbornly high. (AP Photo)
Growth in China's property prices slowed for the fourth straight month in August, according to official figures, suggesting that government efforts to pop a feared speculative bubble are paying off.Housing prices in 70 major cities rose 9.3 percent year-on-year in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said, down from 10.3 percent in July.
Despite the slowdown, the government has said it had no plans to ease the restrictions and would continue to "firmly crack down on speculative purchases of houses". (NYT Photo)
