China's local governments take measures to curb house prices

The Chinese authorities have declared curbing skyrocketing house prices in some overheated markets to be an important mission in 2017.

In elaborating the amendments to this year's government report, Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the State Council Research Office, says the government aims to reduce the housing inventory and at the same time stabilize housing prices in 2017.

"We'll adopt housing control policies in line with local conditions. For those with high housing inventory, we'll try to sell more houses. For those with high prices, we'll curb and control the price rise." Said Han.

Han added that local governments should take responsibility for managing the property market, and that policies should differ from city to city.

He added measures regulating house prices come at a time when the real estate market is on the rise again in China.
New stats released by 36 listed real estate developers suggest their sales volume jumped 88 percent in January and February.
The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, has required domestic banks to control their mortgage limits.

Some banks have also raised the down payment rate for the purchase of homes, according to domestic media.

Meanwhile, municipal authorities in the Chinese capital have just rolled out new measures to restrict housing purchase.
Beijing has raised the downpayment requirement for second home purchase in the city to at least 60-percent.

The Chinese capital has also suspended insurance on individual mortgage loads for terms of over 25 years.