Guangzhou cracks down on idle land

Guangzhou has unveiled measures to boost land supply and step up the supervision of land that's been sold. It's the second city to implement the central government's measures to control housing prices.

Among the new measures is a stricter pre-sale mechanism for land auctions. To crack down on failed auctions, Guangzhou's real estate agencies are now required to publicly announce planned sales before accepting purchase applications.

Li Wenjiang, Real Estate Analyst, Guangzhou, said, "The mechanism lets the government know in advance the intentions of property developers, including what prices they plan to ask. This can help prevent unreasonable high prices and better coordinate land supply and demand."

About 400-thousand square meters of land has been earmarked for low-income housing in the southern Chinese city... with 10-thousand apartments due to be built on this land. The local government has also allocated 5 million square meters of land for residential use this year. Furthermore, 20-thousand apartments will be built downtown.

Li Wenjiang, Real Estate Analyst, Guangzhou, said, "The annual volume of the city's new property sales is 9 million square meters. Five million square meters of land will help meet market demand and curb unreasonable housing price hikes."

The city's government will impose a 20 per cent tax on the cost of land left idle. The hefty tax aims to ensure all land sold is used constructively.