Property curbs to stay

The country's top housing regulator disclosed over the weekend that the authority will continue the current curbs on the real estate industry and said the home prices will not rebound nationwide.

"All local governments and agencies should unswervingly continue the property market controls, and resolutely curb speculative investment in housing…currently housing prices have not yet reached the conditions for a rebound nationwide," an unnamed official at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development was quoted as saying by the People's Daily Sunday.

The official's remarks came after rising speculation that the country's home prices will soon rebound, as many cities have seen month-on-month price increases for a few months recently.

According to statistics released by China's leading property research organization the China Index Academy early this month, the average home prices in the statistical pool of 100 major cities rose to 8,738 yuan ($1,377) per square meter in August, a slight increase of 0.24 percent compared with a month earlier, marking the third straight month of price rise.

And in late July the State Council dispatched eight teams to investigate the implementation of the national real estate curbs in 16 major provinces and cities, a move analysts believed had been prompted by the recent rebound in home prices.

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