In a bid to control the rise in home prices in China's property market, additional measures to restrict housing purchases were introduced by authorities in the cities of Nanjing and Qingdao.
Xinhua News Agency reported that starting on Thursday, March 16, people in Nanjing who do not have local "hukou" (permanent residence permits) and anyone who own at least one house in the districts of Liuhe, Lishui and Gaochun will not qualify to buy a house. In addition, people in the main urban districts who have at least two houses will not be allowed to buy another home.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the prices of new housing increased by about 37.3 percent year-on-year in January in Nanjing.
Meanwhile, in Qingdao, authorities have also announced purchase restrictions. The city said that starting Thursday, March 16, people without a local "hukou" who want to buy a house in the urban area must provide records that show that they have paid at least a year's worth of income tax and made payments on their social security. Non-locals who already own a house or cannot provide such records are disqualified from buying a house in the urban area.
Based on data, the prices of new housing in Qingdao increased by 13.2 percent year-on-year, or 0.1 percent month-on-month.
Several other second-tier cities and cities near Shanghai and Beijing have restricted housing purchases to calm China housing market.
NBS said investment in real estate market in the first two months of 2017 climbed 8.9 percent year-on-year to more than 985 billion yuan ($143 billion), while housing sales rose 26 percent from the same period in 2016 to over 1 trillion yuan.
The rise in investment and growth had surpassed expectations, according to analysts.
"Further tightening measures were expected in more cities including first-tier cities in March," Yan Yuejin, a housing market analyst, said.
Chinese authorities have introduced restrictions on property investments to prevent the speculative selling of property at high prices.