China's home prices may drop further because of macro control

"The rapid rise in property prices has been markedly contained, as the prices in some cities have begun to drop," the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesman Sheng Laiyun said in a press conference on October 18. In order to keep housing prices down, the government adopted a series of tightening measures earlier this year, such as instructing local governments to set new home price control targets, raising minimum down payments for second-home purchases, limiting purchases of new homes and introducing property taxes in the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing. There are clearer signs of cooling in China's property sector, as a result of the central government's measures to deflate the property bubble.