THE Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has reiterated that it would step up checks on local governments’ efforts to rein in property prices, and will hold those who fail to do so accountable.

The ministry issued the statement Saturday, warning against property market speculation. It was the second time within 10 days and the fourth time this year that the ministry has voiced concern about property prices.

In early May, it told governments in 12 cities to rein in their fast-rising property prices and step up regulations, stressing that policies to control prices and prevent speculative investment will not be changed or loosened.

The city of Taiyuan in the coal-producing northern province of Shanxi , a city of over 4 million people, as well as six other cities such as Chengdu and Xi’an, were among the cities summoned by the Housing Ministry on May 9.

Taiyuan tightened property controls Friday, joining a slew of lower-tier cities that have rolled out fresh tightening measures in May.

Local residents are now only allowed to buy two properties at most. Buyers cannot resell their properties within the first two years of purchase, the Taiyuan government said.

Taiyuan’s new home prices rose 7.7 percent from a year earlier in April, official data showed.

Last week, the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu introduced a lottery system for homebuyers amid prevalent property speculation in the city as loose residency curbs attracted a large influx of property buyers.

Previous property restrictions are porous and speculative buyers have entered the market after they had obtained local residency, Xinhua quoted Chengdu’s housing bureau as saying. New rules now require homebuyers to pay their social securities for at least a year.

China’s property prices are expected to cool steadily this year amid persistent curbs on buyers and tighter monetary conditions, but the market remains frothy and is subject to volatility, a government think tank said last week.

Economists polled in late March predicted nationwide home prices would rise just 1 percent this year, after a gain of 5.3 percent in 2017.

But new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.5 percent in April from the previous month, up from a 0.4-percent rise in March, showed calculations from National Bureau of Statistics data published earlier this month.

On an annual basis, home prices increased 4.7 percent in April, slowing from a 4.9-percent gain in March.(SD-Agencies)