New house sales surge in major Chinese cities

Chinese authorities have required higher down payments, restricted third-home purchases and built millions of affordable homes in an attempt to bring runaway housing prices down.

But after revenues from land sales decreased and weakened property investment slowed the economy, some local governments "fine-tuned" their property policies starting in the second half of 2011 by allowing home buyers to borrow more from public housing funds, reducing taxes and fees or subsidizing home purchases.

The market recovery since the second half of last year brought the total area of new housing sold in 30 major cities in 2012 to 198 million square meters, up 34.1 percent from a year earlier, Centaline Group figures showed.

As long as the government does not tighten its grip on the property market, transactions will remain active, Zhang said.

However, he does not expect drastic gains in prices or transaction volumes in 2013, as housing demand will not increase as fast as last year.

A majority of people still consider property prices to be too high, according to a telephone survey of 5,000 urban dwellers conducted by the Canton Public Opinion Research Center in October.

About 66 percent of the polled residents said housing prices are "unaffordable" at present and 83 percent said commodity houses are "expensive" or "relatively expensive," the China Youth Daily reported Tuesday, citing the survey results.

Authorities have reiterated that they will maintain property market controls this year.

 

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