China’s Guangzhou scraps controversial housing price limits

• Guangzhou has quietly abandoned a controversial, seven-year-old policy limiting new housing prices, in a move to ease controls on the ailing property market.
• Developers still need to file planned selling prices with authorities, but regulators no longer provide price guidance, according to the sources.
• Since September 2016, Guangzhou has imposed price limits on new housing projects, barring properties from being sold for prices outside an official range.
• The policy, designed to rein in a freewheeling industry, has drawn criticism for distorting the market.
• During the housing market downturn, the price limits have been blamed for hindering developers’ self-rescue efforts to prop up sales by offering discounts.

External Link : https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/China-s-Guangzhou-scraps-controversial-housing-price-limits