China’s Regulators Seek Improvements to Property Market: Xinhua

China’s regulators will try to bolster the property market with improved policies on land usage, tax and other financial measures, according to the Xinhua News Agency on Sunday.

The Chinese state media’s commentary is the sixth installment of a series on the economy ahead of the government’s much-anticipated annual Central Economic Work Conference this week.

Beijing is struggling to arrest the yearslong decline in the real estate sector, which is contributing to the deflationary pressures afflicting the economy. Investors are expecting more policy support so that China can meet its growth target of around 5% this year.

President Xi Jinping reiterated the need to hit that goal in October, while International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has warned that China’s annual growth could drop to “way below” 4% in the future without reforms to lift domestic consumption.

The country’s property market has bottomed out after recent policy moves, Xinhua said. However, residential sales fell again in November, suggesting the sector still has some way to go before it can show a sustained recovery. 

Xinhua’s fifth installment on Saturday covered the People’s Bank of China, and its efforts to improve its support for the real economy.