Premier Jose Luis Zapatero told a stunned nation that public sector pay will be reduced by 5pc this year and frozen in 2011. "We must make an extraordinary effort," he said.
Pension rises will be shelved. The country’s €2,500 baby bonus will be cancelled. Aid to the regions will be slashed and infrastructure projects will be put on ice. Mr Zapatero’s own monthly pay will fall 15pc to €6,515.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime minister, on Wednesday outlined a series of measures that will include a suspension in automatic increases to retirement pensions, a drop in overseas aid and a reduction in government investment.
He said 13,000 civil service jobs would be cut in 2010, with public sector wages frozen in 2011.
Shanghai will reveal the details of its tightening real estate policies as early as the end of this month, including its long-debated property-ownership tax on multiple homes, Shanghai Securities News reported today.
The property ownership tax is a tax on property based on its ownership and is usually charged yearly based on the estimated value or rental income of the property. In China, the tax currently targets only commercial properties.
In the draft plan, Shanghai will say that multiple residential properties owned by one household will be regarded as commercial properties, and thus subject to property ownership tax, the paper reported.
Chinese developer Evergrande Real Estate Group on Thursday started to offer a 15 percent discount on prices of its 40 property projects across the country to promote sales amid government tightening measures to cool down the red-hot sector, Shanghai Securities News reported.May 5 - China Daily
Average daily transactions of completed apartments in Beijing dropped to two units during the three-day holiday, down 96 percent year-on-year, and that of homes yet to be constructed fell 35 percent to 205 units, according to Beijing Real Estate Transaction website. Compared with April, the transaction volume decreased more than 80 percent.May 7 - Imarketnews
BEIJING (MNI) - China's housing market is reeling from a government effort designed to clamp down on rampant speculation and surging house prices, with potential buyers running to the sidelines as the level of uncertainty rises.And finally, after volume slows to a stop prices start falling:
The sales center for C-King Towers should have been teeming with life last Sunday, with potential buyers cramming the room to snap up units in the mid-to-high end residential development on the north side of Beijing's Third Ring Road. That would certainly have been the case before the middle of last month.
But on Sunday it was a virtual ghost town; two receptionists chatted above the hum of the rap music being pumped into the room to entice non-existent buyers. Rows of tables draped in brown velvet, which should have been the setting for dealmaking, stood unoccupied.
According to Yahao Real Estate, a Beijing-based property brokerage firm, the city's residential housing cost averaged 16,898 yuan per square meter from May 3 to 9, fell 9.60 percent from a week earlier and declined 31.43 percent from the week ( April 4 to 11) before the policy has been taken, the newspaper said.While this is only 'anecdotal' evidence on a certain level it certainly is powerful reading if accurate. As my previous posts have alluded to the Chinese government wants to clamp down on housing speculation. Considering their capabilities it is going to happen. Whether in an elegant or destructive manner is yet to be determined.
