China sets plan for 2013 housing land supplies

BEIJING - China plans to put 150,800 hectares of land on the market for housing projects this year, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) announced Tuesday.

Among them, 109,200 hectares, or 72.4 percent of total supplies, are planned for commodity housing projects, while 41,500 hectares would be for the government's affordable housing program, the ministry said.

Housing land supplies in 70 major cities would amount to 50,300 hectares, 1.2 times the average of their actual annual land supplies seen during the past five years, according to the ministry.

Chinese cities have constantly failed to fulfill residential land supplies plans over the past three years as a result of the government's continuous property controls, which started in 2010.

In 2012, the country's actual housing land supplies came in at 110,800 hectares, falling short of the ministry's target of 159,300 hectares for the year, data from the MLR has shown.

The housing market experienced a cooling-off period starting in 2010, when tightening policies such as higher down payments and restrictions on third-home purchases were introduced.

However, the market began to heat up last year after the central government put more emphasis on economic growth.

In an effort to stabilize market expectations, the State Council, China's cabinet, has pledged to ensure land supplies for housing projects this year.