TIANJIN, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The northern port city of Tianjin announced measures Friday to restrict home owners from buying new homes to cool the property market.
Starting Saturday, single adults (including divorced individuals) and families whose members do not have permanent residence permits will be prohibited from buying new apartments, including second-hand ones, if they already own at least one home in Tianjin.
Families with residence permits who own at least two homes in the city will also be unable to buy more, according to the new rule.
In addition, non-resident families are allowed to buy a house only if they can provide personal income tax or social security records for at least two consecutive years in the city within the past three years.
The city's Binhai New Area is exempt from the restrictions.
Local authorities have promised to increase land supply for new apartments and to urge developers to speed up construction and sale to meet demand. Measures are set to be rolled out to restrain land prices.
About 30 Chinese cities have moved to limit housing purchases this month. In the first two months this year, investment in China's real estate market rose 8.9 percent year on year to more than 985 billion yuan (143 billion U.S. dollars), and housing sales jumped 26 percent from the same period of 2016 to over 1 trillion yuan.
