Home-purchase restrictions in Shanghai are likely to be a long-term policy, a city housing official said yesterday.
That was mainly due to inadequate supply as well as the continuing robust demand for homes, said Liu Haisheng, director of the Shanghai Municipal Housing Support and Building Administration Bureau, the local industry watchdog.
"Land resources in Shanghai are rather limited while housing demand remains strong and that's why we need to stick to such a policy," Liu said. "Preliminary statistics showed that non-locals without permanent residences already account for more than 37 percent of the city's total population."
On January 26, China introduced eight new measures to rein in home prices, including a ban on local residents purchasing third or more homes and a ban on newer residents buying more than one.
