SHANGHAI S property market and some wealthier areas of Beijing could be starting to overheat, even as housing prices in China more broadly were not rising excessively, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
Mass-market residential markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen and luxury residential markets in Beijing and Nanjing may be in the early stages of excessive price growth, the Washington-based IMF said in its Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Outlook over the weekend. A property bubble appears to be inflating in some of the larger cities, although it does not seem as if property prices are significantly above fundamentals for the country as a whole.
New home prices in Shanghai climbed 11 percent to 22,376 yuan (US$3,366) per square meter in the week ended Oct. 17 from the previous week, property consultant Shanghai UWin Real Estate Information Services Co. said over the weekend.
Since April, Chinese policymakers have tightened down-payment requirements, suspended loans for third-home purchases and pledged to speed up trials of a property tax that may be rolled out nationwide. The measures appear to have already had some impact on price growth, the IMF said.
Given the awareness of China s authorities of the risks posed by excessive property price growth, and their experience in containing them, the threat of a housing price bust and consequent financial instability is not immediate, the IMF said in the report.
China s government will impose further policy curbs on the property market to reduce social tension that could arise from increasing home prices, Louis-Vincent Gave, chief executive officer of Marshall Wace GaveKal Asia Ltd., said.
(SD-Agencies)
