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Developers, estate agents face probe

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will launch a monthlong joint inspection of property developers and estate agents to check for instances of price manipulation and falsified contracts. The inspection will be carried out at local sales offices of developers and estate agencies from Oct 30 to Nov 30, according to a statement on the ministry's website. Targeted irregularities include failure to mark prices and sales status clearly, price manipulation, contract falsification, and forced bundled sales of other products and services, the statement said. The NDRC and the ministry said in the statement that local price-supervision bureaus and housing bureaus must accord "utmost importance" for the inspection and urged them to expose and severely punish illegal market behavior.