Hainan mulls tax on vacant homes

HAIKOU - Political advisers in South China's Hainan province urged authorities to levy taxes on vacant homes in popular travel destinations to discourage speculation and cool the island's overheated property market.

The vacancy rate among residential buildings in Hainan has become alarmingly high because many non-residents have flooded the property market to buy winter vacation homes and investment properties, said Wang Yiwu, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Hainan Committee, on Saturday during the committee's ongoing annual plenary meeting.

"About 80 percent of the new residential buildings in cities such as Haikou and Sanya are vacant, according to my research on the property market in Haikou and Sanya," said Wang, who is also an economics professor from Hainan University.