Beijing Real Estate Association Admits There’s A ‘Big Bubble’…

Beijing city limits home-buyers to one new apartment: Media

In The Economic Times

BEIJING: The city of Beijing has issued rules limiting families to one new apartment purchase as authorities try to rein in rampant property speculation and soaring prices, state media reported Friday. 

“For the time being one family can buy only one new home in the city,” China News Service said. 

The capital’s government also ordered banks to refuse home loans to people who cannot prove they have paid taxes and made social security contributions in Beijing for at least one year, the report said.  More here.>>

Beijing Real Estate Association Admits There’s A ‘Big Bubble’, Supports New Measure To Ban Home Buying

Courtesy of Vincent Fernando at Clusterstock 

Beijing on Friday announced a ban on families buying more than one home, in addition to other measures aimed at cooling the city’s hot property market.

China Daily:

As of Friday, “one family can only buy one new apartment in the city for the time being,” the municipal government said in a statement. The government also ordered the implementation of central government policies that ban mortgages for purchases of a third or third-plus home.

It also instigated a central government ban on mortgages to non-local residents who cannot provide more than one year of tax returns or proof of social security payments in Beijing. The statement called for “resolutely curbing unreasonable housing demand.” It ordered the implementation of measures earlier unveiled by the State Council on second-home purchases.

One of these days, property market tightening measures are going to hit the market hard. It’s fat chance that these regulatory efforts can perfectly balance out the market so that prices simply stop rising and all is calm.

The latest measures, more harsh than those released by the State Council, are aimed clearly at curbing speculation and promoting healthy and stable development of the property sector, Chen Zhi, deputy secretary-general of Beijing Real Estate Association, told Xinhua.

Speculation is the main reason behind high home prices in Beijing, Chen said.

“There exists a rather big bubble in the city’s real estate market. Housing has become more unaffordable for many,” he added.

So even the Beijing real estate association is worrying about a bubble. At least give them some credit here. Did America’s National Association of Realtors (NAR) ever caution that the U.S. housing market has a ‘big bubble’? If they did, we don’t recall it.

Read the original story at Phil’s Stock World