2010: GUANGZHOU IMPLEMENTED THE HPRS IN RESPONSE TO THE EXCESSIVE HOUSING PRICE GROWTH

China’s rapid urbanisation and strong economic growth despite the SARS outbreak and the global financial crisis triggered a  heightened investment sentiment for the housing market in the 2000s. The nationwide average residential property price surged by 128.9% over the decade, growing from RMB1,948 per sq m in 2000 to RMB4,459 per sq m in 2009, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In response to excessive growth in housing prices at that time and increasing speculations, the central government promulgated the “New National Ten Measures” to stabilise the market and curb speculations in April 2010, which inaugurated the HPRs in China.

Following the nationwide policy notion, Guangzhou announced the “Opinions on Implementing Macro-Control Policies by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Other Ministries to Promote the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the City’s Real Estate Market” in October 2010 to restrain irrational speculation among house purchasers, considering the robust growth in the city’s housing prices since October 2009. Under the restrictions, only residents with household registrations (known as Hukou) in the city and non-local residents with at least one-year social security/personal income tax payment record were allowed to purchase houses in Guangzhou. Buyers were only allowed to purchase one more new property in the city.