China to announce latest land supply plan

China's Ministry of Land and Resources will announce its latest plan on land supply on Thursday. It also said it would lift a suspension on land sales in Beijing on the same day.

The ministry halted land sales around the country at the end of March, to rein in soaring prices and to curb speculation.

After the CPPCC and the NPC sessions closed, six plots of land were sold in Beijing for 14 billion yuan. Housing prices in the capital surged shortly after. A week later, the Ministry of Land and Resources temporarily suspended land sales in cities with high prices, saying that it would announce new plans and regulations on land supply.

Now as the latest plan is set to be released, the suspension on land sales will be lifted.

The ministry said a new plan for Beijing, will allocate 50 percent of this year's plots for affordable housing, achieving the target set at the beginning of the year.

Lu Xinshe, Vice Minister, Ministry of Land and Resource, said, "Housing prices, and land supply are the most pressing issues for people today. The Ministry of Land and Resources will try to solve the problems in three steps: first we will ensure adequate land supply for affordable housing, second we will severely punish land hoarding, and lastly we will continue to regulate the real estate market."

Lu said the ministry will ensure that proper amounts of land, are earmarked for lower income housing, by examining and approving all land around the country.

The vice minister also announced punishments for developers who failed to start construction according to contracts, and those who didn't develop land as soon as possible. Meanwhile the Ministry said it will also make information more transparent, in order to enhance supervision on the real estate market.