New guidelines curb property uses

China's State Council issued new guidelines yesterday that include stricter curbs on land use and higher taxes for land use in construction, the Wall Street Journal reported. The guidelines are part of the latest effort to correct economic imbalances in China and aim to strengthen controls on land use. According to the guidelines, too much land is being used for construction, there is too much low-cost land for industrial use and too much irregular or illegal use of land. The new regulations say more layers of government approval will be needed for land use and converting agricultural land for construction will be forbidden. Observers had been expecting further measures to cool down housing prices for some time now, the newspaper reported.