Housing lotteries not best way to check prices

Starting from Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, in March, seven first-and second-tier cities including Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan have implemented a lottery system for housing sales.

Housing sales through lotteries used to be a common practice in the days when demand exceeded supply. But thanks to China's rapid economic development and ever-increasing supply of material products, lottery housing purchases became a thing of the past. In recent years, only vehicle license plates have been sold through lotteries, indicating an imbalance between supply and demand, especially because of the government's environmentally friendly measures. This is understandable given the high demand for vehicle license plates in big cities.

But it is strange to see cities that had excessive housing units only one or two years ago suddenly introducing lotteries for housing sales. Does this indicate a serious shortage of housing supply in some areas?