Beijing tells state developers to stop hyping up property market: media

[April 17, 2017]  BEIJING (Reuters) - The municipal government in China's capital told major state-owned property developers on Monday not to talk up the market through "operational and market activities", a Chinese real estate industry portal said.

A construction site for residential apartments is seen in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, November 17, 2015. REUTERS/China Daily

Representatives of the firms were summoned to a meeting with the Beijing government on Monday, the Chinese Real Estate Business (CREB) said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

State-owned developers have been a major force driving up home prices in the past year with aggressive bids for land to increase market share, CREB said, adding that such firms may be forced "to change their land strategy" after the meeting.

State-owned developers successfully bid for nearly half of China's most expensive land in the first five months of 2016, it added.

China's real estate sector rebounded this year, despite authorities' curbs on buying and lending since October in an effort to tame prices. That has prompted a new round of harsher measures by local governments since mid-March.

China is due to release official March home price data on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Nicholas Heath; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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