In its latest attempt to tame frothy house prices, China has ordered its 78 centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) whose core business is not real estate to pull out of property market.

The order was made by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in a statement on its website on March 18. "Those enterprises should hammer out detailed plans of their withdrawal within 15 working days," said Li Rongrong, Chairman of the SASAC.

Of the 127 SOEs supervised by the SASAC, 94 are involved in real estate and out of that only 16 are designated property developers.

The move followed growing complaints that cash-swash SOEs are influencing land prices and squeezing private developers out of land auctions. The state enterprises were responsible for eight of the 10 most expensive land transactions all over the country last year.

The China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co. (COSCO) was first to respond. Wei Jiafu, President and CEO of COSCO, during a public appearance on March 19 promised one of its subsidiaries, COSCO (Hong Kong) Group Ltd., would sell its 8-percent stake in Sino Ocean Land Holdings Ltd. within six months.

Wu Jinglian, a renowned economist with the Development Research Center under the State Council, said it is also necessary to put pressure on SOEs to make them more efficient, improve their technologies, and strike against property speculation, he said.

Cooling the property fever also requires properly addressing the supply-demand imbalance of land, said SASAC Vice Chairman Shao Ning.