Claiming that housing is an issue of both social and political
significance, Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangming has approved a series
of property-control measures in an effort to curb rising house
prices.
The house price in this southern city has seen a "too rapid"
rise since 2004, with the average price of a new apartment hitting
a record high in January of 7,524 yuan (US$964) per square meter,
Zhang said in a recent government work meeting.
"With the introduction of new government measures, we will be
able to maintain the price at a rational level to ensure local
people, especially those on low and medium incomes, can afford to
buy houses," Zhang said.
The new measures include an expansion of land supplies, building
affordable homes for people on low incomes, renovating old urban
communities, reclaiming unused land, streamlining procedures for
housing approval, undertaking a citywide inspection of commercial
house projects, and ensuring the timely publication of house prices
to the public.
In particular, the city will increase land supplies for real
estate use within the next three years, with an annual increase of
5 sq km.
"The government will attach the utmost importance to building
so-called 'economical houses' for ordinary people in the years
ahead because we have realized that skyrocketing house prices have
become a major issue affecting society," Zhang said.
He said the city would spend 1.5 billion yuan (US$192 million)
building low-cost houses for 5,643 families, each of which
currently has a living space of no more than 10 square meters per
person.
Zhang said that by 2010, the city plans to build more than
100,000 low-cost houses for 84,600 families on low and medium
incomes. The development will cover 8.4 million square meters.
The new plans have been warmly received by residents.
Local man Wen Jianwei, said: "Guangzhou will serve as a good
example for other cities in terms of using controlling measures by
the government. Also, the mayor will be supported all over the
country if he succeeds in bringing down the house price. It will be
great accomplishment if the measures work in the coming years."
However, real estate developers estimate that prices will
continue to rise this year.
In the city prices will rise by about 12 percent this year, said
Li Wenjiang, a local real estate analyst. But that, he said, would
be a moderate increase compared with last year, when prices soared
23 percent.
"The government's recent measures are crucial for controlling
house prices in the long run. With their implementation, the city
will see a gradual drop in prices," Li said yesterday in an
interview with China Daily.
(China Daily March 30, 2007)