Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:
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China Opens Doors for Insurers to Invest Overseas
China’s insurance regulator has widened investment options for the country’s insurers, allowing them to trade index futures and financial derivatives at home and expand their investment scope abroad.
The move is the latest in a series of rule changes by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) this year to help diversify investments by insurers, which are suffering from a wobbly domestic stock market that slumped 22 percent in 2011.
Highlighting the struggles faced by insurers, China Life (2628.HK) (601628.SS), the world’s largest insurer by market value, issued a profit warning on October 18 signalling its first quarterly loss since 2008.
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China Plans to Do More to Boost Domestic Demand
China’s continued reliance on exports and the need to boost domestic demand, not economic growth, should be the government’s foremost concerns, a senior government researcher said Tuesday.
The 1997 Asian financial crisis showed it is neither possible nor reasonable for the world’s second-largest economy to rely on external demand, Yao Jingyuan, a researcher affiliated with the State Council, or China’s cabinet, told reporters on the sidelines of a forum.
Efforts have since been made to boost domestic demand, “but we’re short of any material progress, and that’s why the problem still exists,” said Mr. Yao, who is a former chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics.
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Flip side of China’s GDP data
Late last week, China announced a 7.4 per cent growth in GDP in the third quarter. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the figure was the lowest in more than three years and lower than the 7.6 per cent in the second quarter and 8.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
However, one of the bright spots in the announcement came in the form of China’s fixed-asset investment, which rose 20.5 per cent year-on-year to 25.69 trillion yuan (S$5 trillion) in the first nine months.
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China property loans surge in Q3
Bank lending to China’s real estate sector rebounded sharply in the third quarter helped by rising sales and investment, central bank data showed, the latest sign that house prices may be stabilising.
Chinese banks lent 416.8 billion yuan ($66.65 billion) to home buyers and property developers between July and September, up 29 percent from the previous three months.
Property loans accounted for 15.4 percent of total new loans issued in the first three quarters, up from 12.3 percent in the first half of this year, the central bank said in a statement on its website.
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Shaanxi introduces new property restrictions
Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province asked its cities over the weekend to strengthen cost calculation for property projects and keep the profit margin for real estate developers at around 10 percent, in a move to stop local housing prices from rising too fast.
The Shaanxi Provincial Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Department issued a notice jointly with the Shaanxi Provincial Price Bureau, requiring cities across the province to calculate housing costs for different areas and publish the housing price ranges of all areas, according to a report published on its website Friday.
Property developers will be required to file housing prices of their property projects with local price authorities prior to house sales, and the homes must be within the price range for the areas where they are located, the report said.
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Chinese film director launches theme-park plan
Disney’s planned resort in Shanghai may have competition from a major domestic player, as China’s most bankable director, Feng Xiaogang, broke ground on his own $158 million themed resort and shopping mall.
The helmer attended a ceremony to launch the Feng Xiaogang Film Commune at the weekend in Haikou, on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, which will comprise five or six sound stages, a shopping mall, hotels, luxury spas and a golf course.
Feng is best known for his huge domestic hits, including “The Banquet” (2006), “If You Are the One” (2008) and “Aftershock” (2010).
This is the first movie-themed resort dedicated to a Chinese filmmaker and the site will feature stage sets from Feng’s forthcoming “Remembering 1942,” which features Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody, and “The Banquet.”
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