Two second-tier Chinese cities have intensified property curbs with harsher measures such as imposing caps on selling prices and banning investors from selling newly bought houses for up to five years. Sales prices for new units in Zhenzhou - the capital of central China's Henan province - are not allowed to be higher than the price level seen last October for new units in the vicinity, state newspaper Henan Daily reported on Wednesday, citing the provincial housing and land authorities.
Home-owners who bought properties in the main districts of Xian - capital of the northwestern Shaanxi province - before April 18 are banned from selling before holding them for five years if they are new units, or two years if they were bought on the resale market, China News also reported on Wednesday, citing the provincial government. Home prices levelled off in China's biggest cities in May but continued to climb nationwide, indicating demand remains resilient despite a series of government measures to keep the market from overheating.
Prices for new units in Xian surged 1.7 percent in May from a month earlier, with annual growth of 11.9 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. Zhengzhou's new units for sale in May fell by 0.1 percent compared to April, but still rose 21.8 percent on a yearly basis, according to NBS data.