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Shanghai (AFP) March 22, 2011 China's economic planner told developers and real estate agents Tuesday not to use underhanded means to sell property, as Beijing continues efforts to cool the country's real estate market. Anyone trying to sell a property "must not use false or nonstandard price labels to mislead property buyers", the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in new rules that take effect on May 1. The regulations are aimed at making prices more transparent to protect both consumers and property sellers, it said, as concerns grow throughout the country at an increasing lack of affordable housing. China's property developers often lure buyers with tactics including touting only the lowest priced unit in residential projects. Other typical practices include deliberately marking up prices and offering subsequent "discounts" to create the impression buyers are getting a good deal. Some developers also hype up prices by withholding some units to create the impression that newly opened buildings are selling fast and should be snapped up quickly. China has introduced a number of measures to cool the market since late 2009, including bans on second home buying in some cities and trial property taxes in Shanghai and the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing. Premier Wen Jiabao told China's legislature earlier this month that the government would ramp up a campaign to build affordable housing amid growing public concern over rising prices. "Morality should flow in the blood of property developers," Wen also told Chinese web users in an online media event ahead of the annual parliament session. The NDRC's new rules state: "Price information in property sellers' advertisements must be real, accurate and elaborate." They also say that sellers must disclose information from parking spaces to interior decorations. Official data suggests house prices softened in February, with eight of the 70 major cities tracked falling from the previous month. Only three cities had showed a monthly decline in January. But housing costs still broadly remain high as prices in Beijing rose 0.4 percent in February from January, and Shanghai recorded a 0.9 percent increase for the second straight month.
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