China said Monday it would curb "overly fast" real estate price rises that have raised fears of a property market bubble with more low-income housing, redeveloping slums and halting "speculative" buying.
A statement issued by the State Council, or Cabinet, said it would bring the market in check by "strengthening market supervision, stabilising market expectations and keeping the overly fast momentum of price increases in some cities within limits".
The order, issued after a meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, comes amid rising concern that a programme of huge public spending and easy credit was helping fuel a property market bubble.
Property prices in 70 medium-sized and large cities in China rose 5.7 percent in November from a year earlier, the fastest rate in 16 months and the sixth consecutive monthly on-year increase, the government said last week.
The boom has been bolstered by easy bank loans, tax breaks and a lower down-payment threshold, introduced by the government in the past year to support the real estate sector, a key driver of China's economic recovery.
The State Council statement said the government would "restrain speculative housing purchases".
It gave no specifics on policies that would support the new push.
However, it said it planned to ramp up supplies of cheap public housing, "aiming to basically solve the housing problems of 15.4 million low-income families".
It would also push the redevelopment of shanty towns, particularly around state-owned industrial and mining operations, that it said house about 10 million families.
It would do so in part by encouraging banks to lend for urban redevelopment, and by waiving some taxes for certain projects.
Concerns have risen in recent months that a property bubble was building due to speculative investment amid rumours that a large portion of the government's 586-billion-dollar stimulus package had been channelled into asset markets.
The package was first announced late last year in response to a domestic economic slowdown linked to the global downturn.
The meeting called on local governments to "take specific measures to promote the healthy development of the real estate market", giving no more details.
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