Fifty percent of home buyers changed plans: survey

About one-third of potential home buyers are planning to buy apartments faster than they were before the State Council released more tightening property policies last Friday, a survey from Soufun showed.

Home buyers in first-tier cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are more concerned about the new policies, with 28.81 percent of those surveyed saying they will quicken their acquisition process. But in second-tier cities, the figure is around 10.25 percent, according to the survey.

In Beijing, 80 percent of potential buyers will try to snap an apartment in 2013, with first-home buyers expected to dominate the market.

In Shanghai, more than 40 percent of the polled said they would like to jump into the market between April and June, while 23 percent said they would like to buy a property before the end of March.

More than 50 percent of potential home buyers believe that prices will pick up further, among which 11 percent of them are expecting soaring prices.

In one of its sternest measures yet to curb housing prices in major cities, the State Council, or China's cabinet, on March 1 disclosed a 20 percent individual income tax to be levied on capital gains by home sellers.