China announces new policy to boost property sector
Property prices in major Chinese cities increased 3.5 percent in September from a year ago, the slowest pace in more than three years.
People’s tendency to buy houses tumbled to 10-year low. Insiders said the hefty transaction costs did not restrain the property speculative activities, but refrain consumers from buying.
To facilitate house purchase for mid-and-low income families, the Ministry of Finance said that starting from Nov. 1, the stamp tax on property purchase and the value-added tax of land on property sales would be lifted. The contract tax would be reduced to 1 percent on purchase of the first unit of housing with a floor space of no more than 90 square meters.
The fiscal measures were unveiled shortly after the interest rate cuts, which showed the government’s resolution to sort out the current problem, Hua said.
Bai Jingming said the new policy would coordinated with the loosening monetary policy to help stabilize the property market and the national economy.
The ministry said the construction of the low-rental housing would be accelerated and the subsidies for low-income families would be boosted. Living allowance for the people affected by the Sichuan earthquake would also be increased.
Those moves aimed to ensure the basic living of the low-income households and raise people’s expectation for the economy. It also intended to promote the healthy and stable development of the economy by fueling domestic consumption, the ministry said on its website.
China has cut interest rates twice in one month, and loosened the lending restrictions to prevent the world’s fourth largest economy from sliding.
It also raised the export rebates to boost export, which is the driving force of the national economy, as the trade surplus shrank 2.6 percent in the first three quarters from a year ago sapped by weakening foreign demand.
Tags: policy, PropertyPages: 1 2
