Beijing rushes to curb housing bubble

来源:百度文库 编辑:神马文学网 时间:2024/03/29 19:25:54
09:02, March 19, 2010      
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China's authorities, apparently trying to allay rising complaints about housing prices and an urban land selling spree, decided Thursday to close door on State-owned enterprises purchasing land and engaging in property development.
More than 70 State-owned firms are being ordered to unwind their real estate business, once their current development projects are completed, a spokesman from the State Council's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission told reporters in Beijing.
One day after China's Premier Wen Jiabao vowed at a press conference held upon the closing of the annual National People's Congress on March 14, in the capital city of Beijing, three plots of land earmarked for housing development were auctioned and their prices topped at record highs at the hammer.
The voracious appetite for land in cities like Beijing and Shanghai where housing prices have already soared by strides and are not affordable by most ordinary residents, immediately caused an uproar and fierce criticism on the Internet chat-rooms.
The super-wealthy State-owned enterprises, which are administered by the Beijing Central Government, are blamed for firing up the land acquisition frenzy, which is sure to push up housing prices further.
According to The Beijing News, a local newspaper, the three firms that bid the highest, with an aggregate price tag of 11 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion), are all State-owned large enterprises. One tract of the land, located in Wangjing, northeast the city, sold for 27,000 yuan (US$3,970) per square meter, even higher than the price of finished apartments in the area.
Dangerous Asset Bubbles
Without specifying a date, the State Council's commission in charge of more than 120 mega State-owned enterprises, ruled that 78 state companies, whose main businesses were not property development, will be put under "adjustment and restructuring” as soon as their current projects under development are accomplished, said commission spokesman Du Yuan-quan at a press conference held on Thursday.
However, 16 central government-run enterprises approved by the commission in 2003 to mainly operate in the real estate sector, will remain in the business, Du said. The 16 companies' net profit was 18.8 billion yuan in 2009.
In another government move to curtail land prices, the Ministry of Land and Resources, also under the State Council, decreed last week that realty developers pay a 50 percent down payment on land acquisitions within a month of signing a contract.
China's ordinary urban residents have complained hard that home prices have been rising out of their reach, despite a set of government policies to rein in speculation and asset bubbles. The National Bureau of Statistics said that housing prices increased by 10.7 percent in February from a year earlier.
Some Chinese analysts say that a large proportion of the government's 4-trillion-yuan (US$586 billion) stimulus spending plan has gone to State-owned enterprises, but many of which poured the money into the property market, creating an imminent housing sector bubble in the country in 2009. Some SOEs have grabbed enormous profits in the property sector because their official background makes them easier to obtain land and bank loans.
Economists have cautioned the central government of growing risks posed by the real estate bubbles, which if burst, might trigger the American-style mortgage crisis, dealing a blow to the country's banking system.
People's Daily OnlineCentral SOEs' realty business to be restricted
16:52, March 18, 2010      
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78 central state-owned enterprises (SOEs), whose core business is not property development, will quit the property market after finishing ongoing projects, said Du Yuanquan, spokesman of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on March 18.
Since the establishment of the SASAC in 2003, central SOEs' property business has experienced a substantial restructuring. About 16 central SOEs were allowed to make property development their core business.
According to raw statistics, China's central SOEs realized sales revenue of 220.9 billion yuan (around $32.36 billion) in 2009, accounting for 5 percent of the country's overall commercial residential housing sales.
"Central property development SOEs have played an active role in fulfilling social responsibility and the tasks of low-income housing construction," said Du.
By People's Daily Online
Moving on up, to the way, way east side
08:38, March 17, 2010      
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Home prices in Tongzhou District have increased faster in recent days after the local government announced its plans to build a modern urban area.
The price of hot existing buildings including BOBO City and Wuyi Garden increased more than 3 percent after the modern international city plan was released Friday, according to data from the Iefang real estate intermediary institution released Monday.
The local government will start bidding on construction projects in April, and the demolishing of houses and relocation of the residents at the juncture of five rivers, including the Tonghui river, will start this June, Wang Yunfeng, the secretary of the commission of Tongzhou district, said over the weekend.
The new city will become a business, culture and entertainment complex, and it will probably take 10 years to achieve that objective, Wang said.
"Nearly two weeks ago, the director of the Tongzhou bureau of commerce, Wang Shi-jie, came to seek advice from us about inviting commercial property developers, and said as least three skyscrapers for commercial use will be built in this area," Wang Yongping, secretary general of the China Commercial Real Estate Association (CCREA), told the Global Times Monday.
He added that to some extent, the model of the new international area will be like Shanghai's Pudong district.
"The home price near Tuqiao, the last stop of the Batong metro line, soared to more than 17,000 yuan ($2,490.5) per square meters, which is so terrible because it is close to the sixth ring road," Yu Menghan, a fashion editor who wants to buy an apartment in Tongzhou district, told the Global Times Monday.
The price spike was similar to those experienced in Shanghai and Hainan Province.
"When the local government announced Nanhui district would be incorporated into Pudong district last April, home prices soared from nearly 8,000 yuan ($1,172) to the present 14,000 yuan, and the price rose much more when Disneyland entered this area," Lu Qilin, deputy director of the Shanghai YouWin Real Estate Research Center, told the Global Times Monday.
Hotel and home prices in Hainan, the country's tropical island province, reached a record high at the beginning of this year under speculation that the prices would keep on rising because of the International Tourism Island development plan released by the government.
But Wang of the CCREA said whether the bubble will grow depends on the city's follow-up infrastructure construction and commercial investment opportunities.
"Tongzhou district is close to Beijing's Central Business District (CBD), where recreation places are lacking, and the new town will become a supplement to the CBD," Wang said. "What's more, the district also has many plots for development."
Besides the present Batong metro line, seven more lines including the M6 line will be built in the future.
The total area of the new city center in Tongzhou will be 155 square kilometers with construction areas totaling 85 square kilometers, said Zhang Yong, deputy director of Tongzhou district.
The area will be able to house more than 1 million people, Zhang said.
Source: Global Times