China will expand the limits on real estate purchases to second- and third-tier cities, as it intensifies its efforts to cool the property market, said a report.
Authorities have prepared a list of cities that will need to implement the limits, said an unnamed high-level official at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, as quoted by the Chongqing Evening News.
Among the cities set to implement the rules are Jinan and Qingdao, said the report.
Several cities have already issued limits on property purchases, with Beijing being the first to announce such rules in 2010, when it limited families to one new flat purchase, followed by Shanghai in October.
The report said 16 cities have issued such regulations, which are among the various measures aimed at cooling the real estate market.
The central government has also raised minimum downpayments required for real estate transactions to at least 30 percent, while the central bank has increased interest rates twice since October.
The central bank has also raised the amount of money banks must reserve in an effort to rein in lending.
Property prices, however, have remained high, posting their fourth consecutive month-on-month increase in December.
Analysts have put the blame on the massive stimulus measures announced by the government to fight the financial crisis in 2008 for flooding the market with liquidity, which has resulted in inflation and increasing property prices.
The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, would reach the highest level in Q1 2011, due to increasing salaries and commodity prices and would then fall for the remainder of the year, the report added.