The city's urban planners will increase the land supply for real estate development this year in an effort to bring down housing prices, a press conference was told yesterday.

The city government plans to provide 210 hectares of land for building homes this year, compared with 144 hectares last year, figures released yesterday by the municipal urban planning bureau showed. Previously Shenzhen had been providing only about 60 to 70 hectares for real estate development each year.

The land plots provided for real estate development this year are all located in Longgang and Bao'an, the two districts outside the Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Li Yuehui, an analyst with the Shihua Real Estate Agency, said the increased land supply would help slow the rise in property prices in Longgang and Bao'an.

"But its influence on the housing prices inside the SEZ will be very limited, because the new land supply is all outside the SEZ," said Li.

The city's average housing price in April rose by 11.3 percent year-on-year, figures released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics show.

In another development, the city government said it will build eight hospitals and 32 schools.

Most of the new facilities will be located in Longgang and Bao'an, which suffer a great shortage of hospitals and schools, according to the bureau.

The city government will provide a total of 1,800 hectares of new land for construction this year, compared with 2,174.7 hectares last year, the news conference was told.

Meanwhile, 73 hectares of industrial land located in areas near water sources will be cleared to protect the water sources, according to the press conference.

Editor: Yan