China widens property-tax trials with levy on residential property owners

China’s State Council will expand property-tax reform trials to more areas and start taxing residential property owners, official news agency Xinhua reported. 
 

The plan, approved by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top legislative body, is designed to guide rational property buying and will last for five years, according to the report. The locations and number of areas where the trials will be undertaken were not specified. 

Property prices in China have skyrocketed to unaffordable levels since private home ownership was introduced in 1998, and the government has faced an ongoing battle to control speculators. Authorities started property tax trials