BY Clare Jim
HONG KONG: Two cities in China’s southern Guangdong province and the southeast city of Fuzhou imposed new home buying restrictions on Thursday aimed at preventing a property bubble.
The tightening measures imposed in Zhuhai, Dongguan and Fuzhou included raising downpayment requirements and restricting owners of two properties from buying more.
In the previous six days, 14 Chinese cities have imposed similar administrative restrictions to curb property speculation.
But real estate agents said that readily available, cheap mortgages and strong demand are likely to keep China’s property market rising, even if restrictions dampen sales and prices over the short term.
The three cities on Thursday raised downpayment requirement for second-home buyers to 40 percent from 30 percent, while Fuzhou raised the requirement even for first-time buyers if they are not local residents.
Dongguan also restricted families who have two or more properties from taking out mortgages or buying apartments of any size, while the other two still allow buyers to acquire apartments larger than 144 square meters.
In Guangdong province, first-tier city Guangzhou already has home purchase restrictions in place while Fushan imposed new curbs on Oct 4.
Source: Reuters (Editing by Eric Meijer)