More scrutiny for housing pre-sales
- Source: Global Times
- [11:19 September 03 2010]
- Comments
Residences under construction in Jiading district. Authorities Thursday tightened up rules for pre-sales of housing to curb hoarding of completed properties by developers. Photo: IC
By Zhou Ping
The Shanghai Municipal Housing Support and Building Bureau Thursday announced that it is to enhance supervision over housing pre-sales.
According to the statement, applications for pre-sales must be made in batches of at least 30,000 square meters. Developments of less than 30,000 square meters must be applied for all at once.
Housing projects should be checked and measured by housing mapping institutions before sales approval is applied for.
District housing support and building authorities are required to tighten approvals of commercial housing pre-sales and standardize reservations and sales, tackle illegal activities and maintain housing market order.
The statement further ordered improvements in the management of housing sales records. Price changes that are not noted in pre-sales applications should be reported to the district housing management authority.
To tackle illegal property-hoarding, the announcement said that booking contracts and sale contracts should be recorded through the online system in time, and that developers are not allowed to hold properties back from the market.
Developers are also barred from requiring that buyers pay subscription or reservation fees or other forms of deposit before sales are completed.
The authority will issue a warning to developers who breach the regulations and make a record of their misconduct. In serious cases, developers will have their authorization to operate revoked.
The bureau said it will strictly fight against surges in house prices and provide more affordable housing.
According to Xue Jianxiong, an analyst at China Real Estate Information Corporation, Shanghai approved 52 applications for pre-sales from developers in August, among which only six were of 30,000 square meters or above.
"As applications for pre-sales by developers must now reach a minimum of 30,000 square meters at a time, it will help to prevent developers separating projects and raising prices in increments," Xue added.
