More China Cities Move to Limit Home Purchases

Three big Chinese cities Thursday unveiled new rules to restrict home purchases in the latest efforts to rein in rapidly rising housing prices.

The governments of Nanchang, Jinan and Yinchuan, all provincial and autonomous regional capitals, prohibited new home purchases by locally-registered families who already own two or more homes and non-local registered families who own at least one home.

The eastern cities of Nanchang and Jinan also banned non-local registered families with no documents certifying they have paid social security or income tax for one year from buying property.

Haikou and Sanya, two major cities in the southern island province of Hainan, were to roll out similar measures this month, the provincial government said Thursday.

Last week, the Beijing municipal government unveiled the toughest measures ever prohibiting home purchases by non-local registered families who have no proof of social security contributions or income tax payments in the Chinese capital for five straight years.

More than a dozen major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuhan and Xiamen, have moved to limit home purchases this month.

This came after the State Council, China's Cabinet, ordered late last month that cities with soaring home prices must implement strict measures to restrict home purchases.