Since April, the Chinese government has imposed strong measures to prevent the housing prices from overheating. However, five months after the tough regulatory policies were announced, the housing prices remain steady. On Monday, Beijing Statistic Bureau started a plan to find out how many houses in the city are empty. BON’s George Liu has more.
In a time of desperate housing prices, desperate measures are being taken. For the past few months, the Chinese government has implemented new regulations in an attempt to cool off the property markets. But it might take one group of local residents in Xi'an to show the country how to do it…
The topic of housing prices arouses huge interest - and quite a bit of anger too. Previously here on BON we've looked at the growing discontent amongst the so-called "sandwich class" – those not poor enough to qualify for affordable housing but nowhere near rich enough to buy their own property.
Well some of that anger became evident recently when a frustrated young university graduate turned to direct action. He also became something of a folk hero on the Internet when he threw a pair of sneakers at a prominent real estate tycoon delivering a speech on the housing market.
I would ask about housing prices, and when ordinary people like us can afford an apartment of our own. The government has taken some measures but they haven’t helped. Since August and September last year, housing prices have doubled, and they are now way beyond what we can afford.
That’s impossible! I never have and never will get a chance to talk to him, so I can’t ask him questions, and I don’t answer hypothetical questions. Many people have raised questions about the housing problem, as well as the corruption problem, and even discussed it in the National People's Congress, but it hasn’t done anything to solve them. In my opinion it is a problem of the whole system.
I would ask about social welfare insurance, and how the government will care for elderly citizens. I think nowadays regulations are not enough, as we are not too sure about the future. There have been many cases of embezzling public funds, so I would ask how the government will act to put the money to its best use and strengthen supervision. I’m hopeful about the future.
It's not just temperatures that are skyrocketing in China this summer- house prices are soaring along with the mercury. So much so in fact, that the national government is promising some measure of relief for the middle class in the form of more government-assisted housing.
BON's Tony Zhou has more on how some lucky families are benefiting from affordable housing …
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