October 03, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 20, 1428

BEIJING, Oct 2: The Chinese government has admitted to failing to curb soaring home prices, blaming local officials for not doing enough to ensure sufficient housing supply, state media said on Tuesday.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top planning agency, will make lending and taxation policies more targeted in order to improve the situation, the China Daily reported, without elaborating the new measures.

From January to August, sales of houses increased 30.9 per cent from the same period last year, and supply has had problems keeping up with enormous demand, according to the paper.

“Some places have failed to act more actively to adjust the structure of house supply and stabilise house prices,” the paper quoted the National Development and Reform Commission as saying in a statement.

The commission said the failure amounted to “dereliction of duty” on the part of some local officials, citing an offence punishable by lengthy jail terms in China.

Most importantly, local officials have not met targets for the construction of relatively small apartments of less than 90 square meters (970 square feet), the paper said.

Government policies dictate that 70 per cent of all new homes being built must be of this modest size, but currently less than 25 per cent fall into the category.—Reuters