Return of sanity

First-quarter data show crackdown on speculative investments and runaway home prices appears to be working

Measures this year across China to rein in both speculative investments in the property sector and skyrocketing home prices appear to be "effective".

For instance, the average sale price in Shanghai's high-end segments posted only a 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter growth in the first quarter of this year, while in the fourth quarter of 2016, growth was 1 percent.