A housing tax in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has helped to curb sales and prices for high-end housing after the tax took effect in late January, a local housing official said Thursday.
The tax has driven many potential buyers away from high-end residential projects and prompted developers to set more reasonable prices, said Zhang Dingyu, chief of the Chongqing Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management.
Visitor numbers for high-end housing projects dropped by 30 to 50 percent, while sales of high-end housing reached 256,600 square meters between Jan. 28 and Apr. 30, Zhang said.
Sales of high-end housing accounted for 7.8 percent of the city's total commercial housing sales over the three months, down 3.1 percentage points from a year earlier, he said.
Meanwhile, the average price of taxable housing decreased by 10.48 percent to reach 13,140 yuan (2,030 U.S. dollars) per square meter.
Some property developers have begun to reduce the supply of larger houses by building smaller ones, as customers have chosen to buy smaller properties to avoid taxes, the official said.
Authorities in Chongqing and Shanghai implemented a trial property tax on Jan. 28 to cool off red-hot housing markets. The tax followed other nationwide cooling measures, including a ban on mortgage loans for third homes and the creation of new housing price control targets.
High-end housing refers to villas and new apartments that are priced at least two times higher than the average price for other new homes.
The tax has driven many potential buyers away from high-end residential projects and prompted developers to set more reasonable prices, said Zhang Dingyu, chief of the Chongqing Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management.
Visitor numbers for high-end housing projects dropped by 30 to 50 percent, while sales of high-end housing reached 256,600 square meters between Jan. 28 and Apr. 30, Zhang said.
Sales of high-end housing accounted for 7.8 percent of the city's total commercial housing sales over the three months, down 3.1 percentage points from a year earlier, he said.
Meanwhile, the average price of taxable housing decreased by 10.48 percent to reach 13,140 yuan (2,030 U.S. dollars) per square meter.
Some property developers have begun to reduce the supply of larger houses by building smaller ones, as customers have chosen to buy smaller properties to avoid taxes, the official said.
Authorities in Chongqing and Shanghai implemented a trial property tax on Jan. 28 to cool off red-hot housing markets. The tax followed other nationwide cooling measures, including a ban on mortgage loans for third homes and the creation of new housing price control targets.
High-end housing refers to villas and new apartments that are priced at least two times higher than the average price for other new homes.
