Beijing is levying a long-resisted property tax in some Chinese regions to guide house-buying as the regime seeks to tame real estate speculation. The Standing Committee of China’s rubber-stamp legislature on Oct. 23 authorized the State Council to start taxing property owners. The scheme will last five years, and the State Council will determine pilot areas, according to Chinese state media. The new tax will apply to both residential and non-residential properties, as well as land and property owners, although rural land owners will be exempt. Property prices in China have soared more than 20 fold since private home ownership began in 1998, creating an affordability crisis that has only been aggravated in recent years. But the push for a property tax has hit a sensitive time when the country’s economy is already showing signs of stress. China’s home prices in dozens of cities fell for the first time in …
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