2 Responses to China Housing Cools

  1. I find this post to be counterfactual. The housing price in the residential area I live in (in Beijing) is literally twice as high as it was a year ago, although last year very few people believed it would rise because it was already very high. The news is right that the government has been trying hard to curb the housing market (at least on the surface), but I find the recent move of announcing its plan to enforce a 20 percent property gain to be unintelligent. Because the statement would create more panic in the housing market.

  2. Trying to use slightly indirect tools to quell speculation has a long record of failure. The Japanese government tried several in 1987-91 to no good effect (and often bad effect). Taxing housing would help, but limiting financing is hard to enforce, price caps encourage deceit and buying ahead of rule implementation. So a timely item, and timely critique by Christy.