China says local governments must prevent property market volatility

Local governments in China should help balance supply and demand in the real estate market, China's Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development said on its website on Tuesday. All cities should assess housing demand, improve housing supply and prevent major ups and downs in the property market, its statement said.

Local governments in China should help balance supply and demand in the real estate market, China's Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development said on its website on Tuesday.

All cities should assess housing demand, improve housing supply and prevent major ups and downs in the property market, its statement said. When implementing annual housing development plans, local authorities should work out the level of housing demand based on population changes and allocate land accordingly, the ministry said.

China has been ramping up measures to halt a property downturn, including by ordering state banks to boost lending to residential projects under a "whitelist" mechanism. More big cities, including Shanghai, have also eased purchase curbs to lure homebuyers. China's new home prices slowed their month-on-month declines in January with the biggest cities seeing some stabilisation, but the nationwide downward trend persisted despite Beijing's efforts to revive demand.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)