2011-04-01 20:36

BEIJING- A total of 49 Chinese cities have defied a central government order by failing to announce their property price control measures for 2011 before April 1.

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The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said Friday that 608 cities, or 92.5 percent of the total required to announce the measures, announced their property price control measures as of Thursday. However, the ministry did not provide the names of those cities that failed to do so.

As an effort to ease soaring property prices, China's central government previously ordered local governments to release their housing cost control targets for 2011 before April 1.

The 70 major cities covered by the country's monthly property price survey have all announced their targets for this year, the ministry said.

Beijing aims for a moderate decrease in the prices of new residential houses in 2011 and has pledged to provide more subsidized and low-income housing.

Other first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen aim to decrease real estate price growth by 8 to 15 percent from last year.