Admittedly, a thriving real estate sector has served as both a growth engine for many local economies and a key driver behind the country's urbanization.

However, it makes no sense to try to sustain a property boom at any cost when it has become dangerously frothy.

Fortunately, policymakers from the central bank have not blinked in face of the short-term pressure of shrinking property sales.

In its first-quarter monetary report released on Tuesday, the People's Bank of China said that it would strengthen its monitoring of default risks from loans to the property sector among others and aim to prevent these risks from spreading more widely through the financial sector.

It is hoped that such a prudent monetary stance will help the market to work its magic in squeezing out China's property bubble.

(China Daily 05/08/2014 page8)