The government's reining in soaring house prices from the source—by cracking down on land hoarding—was applauded by some economists.

Yi Xianrong, a researcher with the Institute of Finance at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thought it urgent to strengthen land monitoring.

"If the country sold 100 million square meters of land to property developers every year, 70 percent will be set aside. In this sense, the Central Government's efforts to expand land supply to stabilize housing prices were largely offset by land hoarding," Yi said.

Priority should be given to improving the monitoring system for sold land in addition to increasing land supplies available for sale, Yi said.

The speed of land development and land use should be disclosed and those local governments who turned a blind eye to land hoarding should be reprimanded to prevent future corruption in the real estate industry, Yi added.

The key point to addressing land hoarding lies in the local governments' implementation of the Central Government's related policies, said Chen Guoqiang, Director of the Real Estate Research Center of Peking University.

Yang Shaofeng, General Manager of Beijing Conworld Real Estate Brokerage House, also thought that high land and housing prices are main contributors to land hoarding after purchase. "Real estate developers leave large tracts of land unused while buying additional plots at skyrocketing prices is destructive to China's real estate market," Yang said.

But some real estate developers refute the country's declaration of war against land hoarding, placing the blame for a lack of construction and project progress on limited land supply.

"Developers would not leave land idle if the land administrative department expanded land supply," said Ren Zhiqiang, President of Beijing Huayuan Group, a Beijing-based real estate company.

Despite housing developers' cries against the recent wave of attacks against land hoarding, the country remains confident in its current land supply policy. According to Vice Minister of Land and Resources Yuan Xiaosu, to date land in the hands of property developers has reached 200,000 hectares, which will meet the demands of land development for the next two or three years.

Measures to Curb Land Hoarding

Liao Yonglin, Director General of the Department of Land Use Management at the Ministry of Land and Resources, said three measures will be taken against the idle land:

—Regulating land supply and perfecting land transfer contract and land appropriation documentation. Detailed terms concerning land scale, payment, transfer conditions, declarations for commencement and completion of construction, and breach terms will be stipulated clearly. Governments at various levels should post information regarding the land transferee, location, area, turnover date, price and contract-based construction date on www.landchina.com.

—Enhancing the monitoring on land use and taking steps to clarify monitoring responsibilities. The land administrative departments at provincial levels should urge municipal and county-level departments to implement effective measures and clarify monitoring responsibilities on land use.

—Urging local governments to check on the disposal of idle land. By the end of February 2010, the land administrative departments at provincial levels will report their idle land to the Ministry of Land and Resources and publicize it in a timely manner.