The BBC reports on the Chinese government’s efforts to slow down the overheating housing market:
New measures introduced in the past few weeks restrict mortgage lending, increase land supply and stop developers from hoarding apartments to push up prices.
In the biggest cities like Beijing and Shanghai, prices have risen so much that for many people most properties are now unaffordable.
But analysts say house prices are unlikely to fall this year, despite the tightening measures adopted by the government.
Last week the annual report on the state of the real estate industry by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences warned that rocketing house prices had become the most important obstacle to that sector’s healthy development.