|
BIZCHINA> Center
![]() |
|
Tax cut to attract more homebuyers
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-24 07:52 Homebuyers in Beijing will have their contract tax halved if the price is below a certain level from today. The Beijing municipal construction committee issued a circular on Saturday to this effect as part of its effort to encourage spending to boost the housing market and tackle the economic downturn.
For example, if a person buys a 120-sq-m apartment in the Wangjing area at the existing average price of 13,000 yuan per sq m, he/she has to pay a contract tax at the rate of 1.5 percent, instead of 3 percent because the total cost would be 1.56 million yuan. The municipal government has made that possible by raising the tax benefit threshold to 1.65 million yuan.
According to a 2006 municipal government rule, only people buying apartments smaller than 120 sq m for less than 9,300 yuan per sq m (in the Wangjing area), for example, were eligible to pay 1.5 percent contract tax. But property prices have risen dramatically in Beijing in the past two years. It has become almost impossible for homebuyers to get a preferential tax treatment. The move is aimed at rescuing the property market, said Li Wenjie, general manager of property agency Centaline China (North China region). But it may not be enough to make more people buy houses because the contract tax is only a small part of the cost. "Especially when many developers are offering more than 10 percent discount, the tax reduction would hardly help," he said. Xie Yiming, an advertising company employee, has been looking for an apartment. He plans to get married next year but would still prefer to watch the market for a while. "The price trend is important for me and friends have told me the downward trend could continue for some time," he said. The Beijing municipal bureau of statistics said on Saturday that the average price of apartments in October fell by 0.2 percent month-on-month, the first time since 2005. And investment in apartments in the first three quarters of this year dropped 15.7 percent year-on-year.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
|
||||
和顺县| 砀山县| 卢湾区| 星子县| 宿松县| 阿拉善盟| 阜平县| 伊吾县| 马尔康县| 永州市| 奉贤区| 延庆县| 那曲县| 长汀县| 晋城| 富宁县| 永春县| 宁蒗| 屯昌县| 常山县| 高陵县| 建阳市| 泾川县| 南平市| 昂仁县| 金门县| 博湖县| 江山市| 岐山县| 西乌珠穆沁旗| 赤壁市| 务川| 奉新县| 金阳县| 侯马市| 清丰县| 宁强县| 勃利县| 阳新县| 峨眉山市| 泊头市|