Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    SHENZHEN Mayor Xu Qin pledged Thursday to roll out policies to contain property price hike. Shenzhen home prices grew the most in the country in 2015.

    He made the remarks at a press conference after the closing of the annual meeting of the city’s legislature.

    According to the latest statistic provided by the city’s urban planning, land and resources commission, Shenzhen has been leading home price increase in China since the beginning of 2015.

    According to official data from the National Statistics Bureau last month, the average apartment price in Shenzhen increased by 48 percent last year compared to 2014, while increases in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou were 18.2, 10.4 and 9.2, respectively.

    In the past month, home prices in Shenzhen hit a record average of 46,515 yuan (US$7,070) per square meter, which means a 100-square-meter apartment would cost 4.5 million yuan, an increase of 74 percent over January of 2015.

    Xu said multiple things influence housing prices and demand for apartments remains huge in Shenzhen as an increasing number of young people are moving to the city to find a work.

    The mayor said that though the government and many property developers had put more apartments on the market last year, the supply did not meet demand. The Shenzhen government built 240,000 affordable apartments between 2010 and 2015, and has distributed 110,000.

    To help cool the real estate market, the municipal government plans to put another 400,000 government-subsidized apartments on the Shenzhen market.

    The mayor also answered a few other questions regarding the city’s next steps in other fields. He said the city will continue to focus on water quality in rivers, with a goal of eliminating serious pollution within 10 years.

    Though China saw an economic slowdown over the past year, Shenzhen’s GDP grew at 8.9 percent, according to Xu.

    Xu said more tax revenue will be spent on improving residents’ living standards.