Alternative housing fails to tame Beijing property market

(ECNS) -- Beijing has implemented nearly 20 types of non-commercial housing to curb the city's soaring home prices, but none of them have been effective, according to a recent media report.

A number of housing types targeting particular groups of people have been introduced as property market controls. They include purchased public housing; commercial houses targeted at foreigners; houses sold to government organs in Beijing; and military-owned houses. In recent years, economical houses, low-rent houses, and price- and size-limited houses have also been set up.

However, the city's attempts to regulate housing prices has failed. Among 69 cities which experienced continued price increases in September, Beijing took the lead with a rise of 20.6 percent compared with the previous year, the report said.

Special government-built "self-living" houses are to be introduced to the public by the end of 2014 at the earliest, as a new measure to stabilize home prices, it added.

Ren Zhiqiang, a real estate tycoon famous for bold statements, estimated that in 2005 there were at least 17 to 18 types of non-commercial housing in Beijing, and more than 30 nationwide.