Time to curb housing speculation

ON THURSDAY, the National Bureau of Statistics released data on the April housing prices in 70 metropolises and medium-sized cities. From this information, it can be concluded that the realty prices in the 70 cities have been stabilizing. Beijing News comments:

In the four major metropolises, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the prices of newly constructed buildings continue to fall. Some argue that realty prices in certain second-and thirdtier cities continue rising, but the rate of increase is small and declining. The rapid rising trend for housing prices in these cities has been curbed, and the stabilizing prices are conducive to the steady development of the housing markets in these cities.

The price differentiation of housing in different cities is obvious, and hits two birds with one stone: destocking the existing inventories in second-and third-tier cities, while taking some of the heat out of realty markets in metropolises.