The Beijing municipal government will beef up efforts in 2017 to regulate the housing market in a bid to secure its stable growth, a local official said over the weekend.
Housing prices in the capital have been surging too fast, posing risks and causing increasing public concern. High prices are also a great challenge for the city's sustainable development, harmony and stability, the Beijing Daily reported on Sunday, citing Guo Jinlong, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Guo said in the report that the city will insist that "homes are for living instead of for speculation," as stated by the central government during the annual Central Economic Work Conference that ran from December 14-16.
The central government plans to use all the tools at its disposal to prevent a property bubble, including finance, taxation, investment and legislation, the Xinhua News Agency said on December 16.
Guo noted that in 2017, the Beijing municipal government will be devoted to helping solve local residents' demand for basic housing, adjusting the structure of land use and raising the ratio of residential land within a proper range.
On September 30, the Beijing government announced new restrictions including higher down payment requirements to rein in the overheated property market.
The restrictions seem to have had an effect in cooling Beijing's real estate market since October, experts said.
But some pressures remain, they noted.
"There was an obvious decrease of buyers in October. I did not have a client in a week [during that month] but in a peak month like August, I could reach a deal of secondhand home during the same period," a Lianjia property agent who only gave his surname as Wang in Dongcheng district told the Global Times on Sunday.
Stricter financial controls will be introduced into the housing market in 2017, according to experts.
