Guangzhou recently introduced the following 7 measures to facilitate control of the housing and land supply, and to stabilize housing prices: 1) promotion of fair competition in real estate market and regulation of the market order; 2) speeding up the development of public housing construction; 3) acceleration of the renewal of old urban areas and improvement of the living environment; 4) utilization of idle lands in old city areas for housing construction; 5) release of benchmark prices, commercial housing supply information and other real estate market information; 6) provision of more lands for the construction of commercial buildings and increase of the housing supply through multiple channels; and 7) acceleration of land use approval procedures and housing construction permits so as to speed up the housing supply.

The public has responded enthusiastically to the above measures. The Guangzhou Statistics and Survey Center conducted a survey of 1,738 households in eight districts --Yuexiu, Liwan, Haizhu, Tianhe, Baiyun, Huangpu, Panyu and Huadu-through a computer-assisted telephone interview system. and 61.2% of the public think the new measures will stabilize housing prices "very effectively" or "to a certain extent".

Editor: Yan