Officials questioned on house price rises

Leading officials of five cities were questioned by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on whether they had strictly followed the tightening policies on the property market, indicating that the central government won't loosen its grip on the housing market in order to prevent excessive price hikes and other irregularities.Officials from Haikou and Sanya in Hainan province, Yantai in Shandong province, Yichang in Hubei province and Yangzhou in Jiangsu province addressed questions from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development last Friday, according to a report in People's Daily.

The officials from the cities were asked to explain whether they had strictly followed the central government's guideline in tightening the real estate sector, carried out measures to combat speculation and rectify the irregularities in the market, and prevent house prices from rising too rapidly.

This is the second time that Haikou and Sanya's leading officials were questioned by the ministry in four months. The two cities took the lead in home price growth in the past six months, with Haikou ranking as one of the top three cities for month-on-month new house price growth for four consecutive months.