Real estate developers in Shenzhen have been banned from using
marketing techniques like pre-sale and the issurance of VIP
memberships when releasing new apartments into the market as part
of the latest official effort to slow down the surging housing
prices in the city, the Daily Sunshine reported
Saturday.
The new measures, jointly released by Shenzhen Municipal Bureau
of Land Resources and Housing Management and the pricing bureau
Friday, require developers to begin selling new apartments within
10 days of obtaining official permission to do so, the newspaper
said.
Developers are not permitted to sell apartments before receiving
official permission, nor are they allowed to issue VIP memberships
to home buyers who put down a deposit as a way of giving them
priority in purchasing apartments, according to the measures.
Property prices, which have been registered with the bureau of land
resources and housing management, must been posted in a clearly
visible place. Besides, a standardized sale contract has also been
introduced for property transactions, the newspaper said. The
contract can be downloaded from the Web site www.srea.gov.cn.
This is the latest move by the city to regulate the housing
market. Previously, the government had urged residents to report
irregularities by property agents in the buying and selling of
property.
It is believed that irregularities by property developers and
agents, like the stockpiling of new apartments, misleading
advertisements and price rigging, have been partly to blame for the
price surge.
Housing prices in Shenzhen continued to climb in the first half
of the year, with the price increases the highest among 70 major
Chinese cities. And in turn, the continuing price rises have fueled
market speculation.
The bureau of land resources and housing management is also
working on a new price evaluation system to prevent home sellers
from evading taxes by falsely declaring low prices.
Many sellers sign two contracts with buyers, with the one
submitted to the bureau stating a much lower price in order to pay
lower amounts in taxes.
After the price evaluation system is put into operation, the
sale of an apartment may be taxed according to the independently
valued market price of the house if the contract is thought to
understate the price.
(Shenzhen Daily July 16, 2007)