Nation limits housing purchases by foreign entities
Foreign organizations or individuals seeking to enter the Chinese property market will face new restrictions, China's Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development announced Monday, in a move seen as trying to combat speculative money from overseas.Furthermore, the ministry has joined the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in issuing a circular calling for the standardization of oversight in the purchases of housing by foreign entities or individuals.
Foreigners are now eligible to purchase only one home for residential use, and must show proof of having worked in China for at least one year prior to the purchase and of owning no other homes in the country.
The new rules stipulate that foreign organizations may only make real estate purchases for office space in the cities where they are registered, and not for residential usage. Previous regulations did not ban foreign companies from buying residential homes for private use.
Individuals from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan will also need to provide documents proving they are working, studying or residing on the mainland when buying a home.
The foreign exchange regulator has repeatedly warned of "hot money" inflows into the country amid heightened fears of asset bubbles, as well as increasing pressure from inflation and recent injections of cash by the United States, which rose to a 25-month high of 4.4 percent in October. Further worries have risen due to a new round of "quantitative easing" by the US.
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