Local governments urged to set housing price targets

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is now urging local governments to formulate housing price control targets and standards, and it has required local governments to release the target by the end of the first quarter, Jiang Weixin, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said on March 10.
Many cities such as Beijing have already made it clear that they would release their targets by the end of March for this year's price controls for newly-built housing.
In the latest efforts announced at the end of January aimed at curbing soaring housing prices, the State Council for the first time required local governments to reasonably set their annual new housing price control target in accordance with local economic development goals, per capita disposable income growth and residents' housing affordability, and release the target to the public in the first quarter.
However, as the deadline is approaching, only a few cities, such as Yinchuan in the country's northwest, have released the housing price control target. Jiang said that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has required various cities to formulate the housing price control target in 2011 and urged local governments to release the target by the end of the first quarter.
By Li Jia, People's Daily Online
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