Huang Xu is in his 30s. He is a supervisor at an investment company in Beijing. After wondering around the expo for more than 6 hours, he wasn't able to find a real estate project which he was willing to consider, let alone a property that he was willing to buy. Huang says there is only one reason for this: property is too expensive.

 

　　"Currently, I haven't chosen any property. It's too expensive. I am still considering. The price is really unacceptable."

 

　　Huang Xu quit his previous job in 2010 to take up a new position which would allow him to earn more money in order to buy an apartment of his own. His current salary is double the amount of his previous job, but he says the rate at which his income rises is not in line with the rate at which property prices have soared.

 

　　"Before, I had a very good job in a state owned enterprise. I quit that and chose to enter the finance industry because the price of property is too high. I earned more than 4,000 yuan a month when I was in the SOE; now my salary is twice as much. However, the speed of my salary rise can't catch up with the rising price of property."

 

　　To tackle property price hikes, the government has issued a series of policies year after year.

 

　　On March 1 this year, the government rolled out a regulatory plan to tighten control over the sizzling property market, including a new capital gains tax as high as 20 percent on secondhand home sales and higher down payments for second-home buyers.

 

　　However, newly released data for China's property sector in the first quarter of the year demonstrated a confused market, which will make clear-cut policy implementation a tough task.

 

　　Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that housing costs rose 0.5 percent month on month in March, with rent up 1.2 percent.

 

　　According to the China Real Estate Index System, during the same period, average new home prices in 100 major Chinese cities rose 1.06 percent from February to 9,998 yuan per square meter, marking the 10th consecutive month of increases.

 

　　Xing Tao, director of a real estate project in Beijing believes that property prices will maintain their rising trend.

 

　　"I think the price will rise slowly and steadily. It will take time for policies designed to curb the market to take effect. The real estate developers will make adjustments according to the market demand. After a period of time, property prices will stabilize."

 

　　While most of the domestic projects exhibited at the fair are located in third or fourth-tier cities, real estate companies from overseas have brought with them more than 200 projects.

 

　　Overseas real estate developers have shifted their focus onto the Chinese market in view of China's fast-growing economy and the continuing economic crisis in western countries.

 

　　A quarterly survey conducted by the central bank showed that 34.4 percent of its depositors believe that housing prices will continue to rise in the next quarter, although a considerable amount of demand was unleashed in the form of last-minute purchases ahead of the announcement of local property curbs in late March.

 

　　According the central bank's survey, 14.8 percent of respondents say they will buy property in the next three months, down 0.6 percentage points from the fourth quarter last year.

 

　　For CRI, I am Li Dong.