Local government in Beijing is working with the local governments of adjacent Hebei province and Tianjin municipality to tame property speculation within the region, after a doubling in average home prices over the past two years in certain districts.
Beijing’s Tongzhou district has teamed up with the governments of Tianjin’s Wuqing district and Hebei province’s Langfang district to establish a real estate regulation enforcement alliance that will combat the activities of speculators on the local property market and misconduct by realtors.
Tongzhou, Wuqing and Langfang are all situated adjacent to each other and comprise a sizeable chunk of the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin conurbation that has China’s capital city at its core.
Wu Diandong, deputy head of the Tongzhou Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that Tongzhou had already shut down 75 real estate companies in breach of regulations since September, with plans to close a further 150 in 2017.
According to figures from Centaline Property average housing prices in Tongzhou have doubled over the past two years from 21,126 yuan per square metres to 50,000 yuan.
The crackdown is also expected to extend to the Xiongan New Area in Hebei province, China’s latest much-vaunted new economic zone.
Speaking to China Daily, Zhang Dawei, Centaline Property chief analyst, said that the speculators have shifted from Beijing and to adjacent areas in the capital-city conurbation, prompting the latest crackdown from the government.
“In the past years, speculators have been flocking to neighbouring areas like Langfang due to tightening rules in Tongzhou, leading to skyrocketing prices in both these areas and in Tongzhou,” said Zhang.
“The alliance between Tongzhou, Wuqing and Lanfang will help to coordinate regulations and restrict capital from flowing in and out of these markets.”
