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NDRC: Real estate should not be promoted as pillar industry

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-04-27 15:01

The Academy of Macroeconomicsunder theNational Development and Reform Commission(NDRC) issued a report today suggesting the government should adjust policies on the real estate sector to cool down the property market.

Some control measures proposed in the report include increasing income tax rate from residential property transactions, establishing a property tax system, and abolishing sales houses whose construction is incomplete.

Other control measures put forward in the report are: putting a levy on windfall profits on property sales, and setting up a new house vacancy tax on developers, and increasing land value-added tax rate, in an effort to hold back surging investment in property sector.

The report also suggests the government should not encourage people to have more than one house.

Although Chinese government has taken measures to regulate property market, the housing prices still keep on rising.

Statistics from the NDRC and the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in last March, the housing prices in 70 big and medium-sized cities across China rose by 5.9 percent compared with the same period last year. The growth rate was a 0.6 percentage point higher than that of last month.