Society

Xi'an changes property target

By Yan Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-22 08:00

BEIJING - In a revision signifying that local governments are yielding to the central government's pressure to rein in housing markets, Xi'an became the first city in China to announce it will lower a target aimed at controlling rises in new home prices.

The news that Xi'an will lower its target by 3.5 percentage points came on Wednesday, the same day that eight supervisory teams dispatched by the State Council, China's Cabinet, concluded an inspection of local property markets.

The supervisory teams were assigned to survey the property markets of 16 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, and to examine the enforcement of policies imposed by the central government to slow rises in local housing prices.

To many, Xi'an's revision of the cap it had set on such rises is a sign that the supervisory teams will push more local governments to likewise lower the maximum rates they had previously set to control rises in housing prices this year.

A team led by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in Northwest China's Shaanxi province stayed in Xi'an, the provincial capital, between April 11 and 14.

Jiang Weixin, head of the ministry, visited affordable-housing projects and low-rent apartments in Xi'an and later encouraged the city to revise the maximum rate it had set to control rises in new home prices, according to local media.

On the day the team concluded its visit, the Xi'an government said in a statement that the city will prevent new home prices from increasing by more than 11.5 percent this year, Xi'an Evening News reported on April 14.

In March, though, the city had merely aimed to ensure the prices of new houses rise no faster than the per capita disposable income of urban residents, which is expected to rise by 15 percent this year.