Shenzhen denies price rise curb in place

A Shenzhen government official yesterday denied media reports that the southern city has imposed a "price increase restriction" on homes since last week amid a rapidly improving sentiment in the market.

Wang Youpeng, an official with the city's urban planning and land resources watchdog, told Caixin.com yesterday that he "has never heard about such a restriction."

An unidentified official with the watchdog said the city hasn't enforced any new policy but will stick to its existing one, which said the annual price rise of new homes in Shenzhen should not exceed the city's gross domestic product growth during the same period.

Since Tuesday, several media including Sina.com said that starting this month Shenzhen has imposed a policy that bars any monthly increase in the average price of any of the city's new residential projects.

Sources from major developers such as China Vanke, Gemdale Corp and China Merchants Property Development all confirmed that the policy has been enforced locally, news portal Sina.com reported.

The prices of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, climbed 2.2 percent in January in Shenzhen from a month earlier, the fastest among 70 cities monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics. That followed a 1.1 percent increase in December.