China Should Extend Property Curbs to Smaller Cities: Herald

China's housing authorities should extend property market controls to smaller cities as property prices in many county-level municipalities, mostly in the developed eastern regions such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Hainan provinces, have rapidly gained, the 21st Century Business Herald said in a commentary. Land prices have also surged, partly because some property developers have been forced out of larger cities and begun to compete for land in some economically more developed county-level cities, the newspaper said. High home prices in county-level cities, where most urbanizing farmers migrate to settle, will place large debt burdens on them and reduce their spending, something that policymakers had counted on for spurring future consumption, the newspaper said.