Efforts urged to facilitate property market recovery

China will make greater efforts to anchor real estate market expectations and help the market to bottom out and recover, the State Council, the nation's Cabinet, said on Friday.

Chinese authorities have pledged to conduct a comprehensive survey of available land and ongoing real estate projects nationwide, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

Based on the survey, policymakers will further optimize existing policies in the property sector to enhance their effectiveness, in order to reinvigorate demand, thus facilitating the sector's bottoming-out, according to the meeting.

A survey by the National Bureau of Statistics found that home prices in 70 major cities stayed flat or dipped in April compared with the previous month. Prices continued to fall year-on-year, but the pace of decline further eased.

On Thursday, Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, released a draft plan, considering fully removing housing purchase restrictions and lowering down payment ratios and interest rates for loans.

The executive meeting also said that the government will provide policy support in areas such as planning, land and fiscal and financial aspects to facilitate urban renewal initiatives.

China recently issued guidelines to push forward its urban renewal projects. The guidelines are designed to achieve key progress in the country's urban renewal campaign by 2030.

The guidelines also called for accelerating the construction or renovation of gas, water supply, drainage, sewage and heat supply facilities, along with other underground pipeline networks and underground utility tunnels, while strengthening the construction of public firefighting facilities and improving transportation infrastructure.

Yan Yuejin, deputy head of the Shanghai-based E-House China R&D Institute, said that these initiatives are expected to boost the market value of second-hand homes, benefiting homeowners as well as potential buyers by improving the overall quality of the housing stock.