China's property market is still........>

CHINA PRESS: China's property market is still sizzling as property developers

and speculators remain positive about further growth, the Economic Information

Daily reported on its front page Tuesday. Data released by the National Bureau

of Statistics show that property markets in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities continue to

heat up, with new-home prices in Tier-2 cities rising 0.5% in November compared

with the previous month, 0.2 percentage point higher than October. The numbers

suggest strong or even record-high sales nationwide. Ni Pengfei, director of the

city and competition research center at the China Social Science Academy, said

that strong policy controls are providing a brake but that the optimism of

property developers, financial institutions and speculators is creating risks.

He pointed out that homeowners' ratio of debt to disposable income had jumped to

90% currently from less than 35% in 2007. He warned that the room for

homeowners' debt to increase further was falling as newly added savings were

slowing. (Economic Information Daily)