Five Chinese ministries, including the Ministry of Land and Resources which is in charge of the country's property development, jointly released a policy on Wednesday, requiring property developers to pay no less than 50 percent of the total price of land purchases upfront, Xinhuanet.com reports.

The policy also requires property developers to pay the remainder in installments within a year, except for some special projects for which they may be granted a two-year repayment period.

The move, considered the government's first step to curbing soaring housing prices, came after an executive meeting of the State Council on Monday, which stressed the need to strengthen and improve the government's control in the housing market by various means, including land, finance and tax controls.

While the policy entails an increase in down payments for property developers, to some extent it also will prevent the practice of land reserves and speculation, which have long been blamed as reasons for the high housing prices, said Zou Xiaoyun, an engineer at the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute.

China's housing prices in 70 major cities rose 3.9 percent year-on-year, the greatest increase in the past 14 months, according to information issued last month by the National Bureau of Statistics.

(CRIENGLISH.com December 18, 2009)