China is to expand its limits on property purchases to second and third-tier cities, a report said Sunday, as it steps up efforts to cool its real estate market. Authorities have drawn up a list of cities that will have to implement the limits, the Chongqing Evening News quoted an unnamed high-level official at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development as saying.
Qingdao and Jinan in the nation's east are among cities set to put the rules into effect, the report said.
The ministry was not available for comment when contacted by AFP. Several cities around China have already issued property purchase limits. Beijing was the first to announce such rules last year when it limited families to one new apartment purchase, and Shanghai followed suit in October.
According to the report, a total of 16 cities have issued such regulations - one of several measures aimed at cooling China's property market. The government has also hiked minimum downpayments needed for property transactions to at least 30 percent, and the central bank has raised interest rates twice since October.