Shanghai holds firm on home purchase restrictions

Shanghai (CNS) – Shanghai municipal authority said on February 28 that they will continue to implement strict home purchase restrictions, as a response to a spreading rumor that the local government would soon relax home purchasing restrictions.

The Shanghai Housing Security and Administration Bureau disclosed its 2012 controls for the real estate market on Tuesday and reiterated for the second time in six days that there will be no policy change regarding home purchase restrictions.

It was reported recently that the local government adjusted its policy to allow residents established here for over three years to purchase a second home, and that move was interpreted as a sign the local government was preparing to ease the strict controls on home purchases. Regarding the media speculation, the bureau director Liu Haisheng, responded on February 22 that there would be no change.

The authority simply clarified that only Shanghai families were allowed to purchase a second home, and only when their children grow up and have home purchase demands of their own.