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BEIJING : China has announced new measures aimed at cooling the overheated property sector.
This follows recent moves to prevent an asset bubble from forming.
China's state media reported that the government will launch a five-month nationwide crackdown on the property sector this month.
It will start by first targeting land hoarding and price speculation.
According to a senior official, investigators will look at irregularities in local government land transfers and failure by real estate companies to develop their holdings in accordance with transfer approvals.
These are just the latest in a series of measures aimed at cooling the property market.
China's real estate prices rose 10.7 per cent on-year last month, the fastest pace in nearly two years, fuelling concerns that an asset bubble is building.
At the same time, rising housing prices have also become a heated social issue.
Just this week, the Ministry of Land and Resources announced that local governments must allot at least 70 per cent of their total housing land supply for low-cost housing or the renovation of shanty towns.
And developers will need to pay an additional 20 per cent for down payment on the purchase of land - making it a total of 50 per cent.
This down payment must be paid within a month of signing the sales contract, and developers have to settle the total price of the land within a year.
There are also strict rules regarding new developments.
Developers have to submit to local watchdogs the starting and completion date of their projects.
Those who flout these rules will be barred from future land auctions for at least a year.
Already, Pacific Century Group - which is controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li - has been banned from trading land in Beijing after a company affiliate failed to fulfil contract obligations and instead allowed land to sit idle.
In order to cool the red-hot property market, Beijing has already restricted lending, raised down payments for buyers of second homes and increased interest rates on mortgage loans. - CNA/ms
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