New wave of housing curbs hits 2nd-tier cities

Agents, developers also under scrutiny

Scrutiny of housing transactions and property agents has been intensified in many Chinese cities as the central and local governments move to stem price surges, the Beijing Evening reported on Wednesday.

The inspections follow a new wave of property curbs in dozens of second-tier cities and regions near such hot first-tier cities as Beijing and Shanghai, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform has said that property brokers are banned from handling any transaction of the same apartment within one year, the report noted.

As to the latest curbs, some examples can be seen in three second-tier cities that rolled out rules on Tuesday, signaling the government is broadening its effort to rein in home prices.

Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian Province and Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian became the latest second-tier cities to impose new restrictions on home purchases.

The three cities follow the example of Beijing in defining second-home buyers by the number of apartments listed under their names as well as by their mortgage records.

Hangzhou prohibited single buyers with local residency from purchasing more than one apartment within a specified area downtown, according to the latest announcement of Hangzhou Housing Securities and Management Bureau posted on its website on Tuesday.

It also added that residents without local residency (hukou) are prohibited from buying homes within the area.

In Fuzhou, the minimum down payment was increased from the previous 40 percent to 50 percent for residents taking out a mortgage on a second home, said an announcement on the Fuzhou government website on Tuesday.

The Fuzhou government also prohibited first-time homebuyers with hukou outside the city's five urban areas from selling their homes within two years after receiving the deed to the property, the announcement noted.

In Xiamen, the government prohibited the sale of commercial space of 180 square meters or less to people without local hukou who cannot prove they've paid local income tax or contributed to the social insurance system every month for at least three consecutive years of the previous four, the Xiamen Daily reported on Wednesday.

It was only in October 2016 that Xiamen required such buyers to have paid local income tax or social insurance on a monthly basis of at least two consecutive years of the previous three, the report said.

Tight housing markets in many cities have led to people buying commercial space that is then converted to residential use.