Saturday 14 November 2009

Crackdown imminent on hoarding of land

The mainland plans to penalise developers that hoard sites to boost land prices.

1 comment:

Guanyu said...

Crackdown imminent on hoarding of land

Yvonne Liu
14 November 2009

The mainland plans to penalise developers that hoard sites to boost land prices.

Dong Zuoji, a director of land planning at the Ministry of Land and Resources, said yesterday the measures would be introduced shortly. The government would publicise the cases of hoarding, Dong said.

“Some developers intend to hoard sites, although some delays may be due to local governments’ failure to complete legal procedures for construction on time. Developers cannot start construction work without the legal documents,” he said.

The department would oversee the progress of land development, Dong said.

Mainland developers have been aggressive in bidding for land since the property market recovered in the second quarter. Many development sites have been sold for a record price this year.

The ministry introduced restrictions on the sale of private housing development sites on Thursday to cool the land market.

Under the new restrictions, a town cannot sell private residential sites larger than seven hectares. The department also put a 14-hectare cap on the size of residential sites for sale in medium-sized cities and a 20-hectare cap in big cities.

The department believes the policy will help brake soaring prices.

Twelve residential sites larger than 20 hectares have been sold this year in Beijing, including two that were bigger than 45 hectares.

National Bureau of Statistics data shows that housing prices in 70 mainland cities grew 0.7 per cent last month.

Dong said mainland property prices would continue to rise.

“No one can stop property prices from rising. But we should be using taxes to direct profits from properties back to the public,” he said.