中国房价攀升 楼市泡沫隐显

最近几个月，包括北京在内的全国各大城市的房价一路攀升，而且房子供不应求，出现了有价无市的局面。政府已经对房地产市场中出现的泡沫提高了警惕。

After a series of administrative policies regarding the property market, housing prices in Beijing have continued to skyrocket. Here is a second-home seller in the capital's central business district. His apartment is 155 square meters.

"Now I'm selling my apartment for 6.2 million yuan, not 5.9 million, and I won't bargain."

The Ministry of Land and Resources says the real estate market is foaming. For the first time, the government introduced the concept of a return rate in its 2009 land price report. The return rate is the number of annual apartment rentals divided by property price. When the rate is above 5.5 percent, housing prices have room to increase. But if it is below 4.5 percent, local housing prices have existing bubbles.

Take the return rate of apartments in Beijing's central business district for instance. It is only 0.7 percent, indicating a huge price bubble. Property agencies in Beijing say property owners are constantly asking for higher prices for their apartments and refusing to bargain.

Zhao Fangwei is a property agency manager.

"Beginning in March, property owners have been calling us every day and asking us to update their posted prices. On average, they ask for one thousand yuan more per square meter every day. The property ad displays hanging outside can hardly represent the changing speed of prices."

The sales volume of second-hand homes in Beijing remains high. By mid- March, the average price of a secondhand apartment reached 19,200 yuan per square meter, a 16-percent increase from the same time during the previous month.

Property agency manager Hu Jinghui says:

"The overall supply and demand ratio in the market is one-third, which means three to four people are eyeing one apartment. In some hot districts, such ratios have reached one-fifth or even one-tenth. The demand in the market is excessively more than the supply."

The Ministry of Land and Resources has tracked the changing return rate in some major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hangzhou. Bubbles have emerged during the past five years and have rapidly spread across the country. Currently, the average return rate in Beijing has fallen from 6.4 percent in 2005 to 3.8 percent in 2009, lower than the current individual mortgage loan rate, which means the return on long-term property investments is far from favorable.

Experts say home buyers need to be fully aware of the high risks of buying property during this feverish time.