Property prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 3.9% year-on-year in October, the sharpest increase in 14 months, Bloomberg reported. In all, 65 of the 70 cities surveyed recorded month-on-month house price gains in October. Amid warnings that prices are once again rising too quickly, some economists are calling on the government to restrict bank lending for real-estate purchases. Lu Ting, an economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, believes Beijing would be best served by tightening the rules for second home purchases in order to curb speculation. Fang Xinghai, director-general of Shanghai’s financial services office, said that while he thought the government might take cooling action soon, he was unmoved by talk of a property bubble. Fang argued that the current 30% down payment requirement for first homes, together with the 40% requirement for second homes, already minimized risk.
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