A city in the East of China has moved to combat property speculation by banning new home owners from reselling their houses for at least three-and-a-half years, reported Caixin.
Tangshan, a prefecture-level city near Beijing, implemented a 42-month resale restriction on Jan. 4 that applies to all newly built homes purchased after that date. It’s the latest local government effort to rein in property speculation after Beijing gave localities more power to fine-tune their own housing policies, and it comes even as a nationwide economic slowdown sees smaller cities stimulate their property markets to arrest flagging growth.
Tangshan, a city best known for being the site of a devastating earthquake in 1976, has scrambled to keep a lid on prices after its housing market saw relatively quick growth in the second half of 2019. In November, property prices increased 1.9% month-on-month, the fastest out of 70 key cities monitored by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Daniel Yao, head of research at property services firm JLL China, told Caixin that the city’s standout price growth has drawn attention and put pressure on the local government. “Throughout 2019, we’ve seen a few cities such as Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhengzhou slightly loosen household registration policies or public housing fund policies to attract talents or support first-time home buyers… while others tightened property curbs as local markets were under ‘overheating’ risk, such as Suzhou.”
