The Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said Friday that China's local governments could increase or decrease the land allocated for commercial houses to stem the fast growth of housing price.

Based on the property market analysis, local governments can decide on their own whether to increase and decrease the land supply in 2005 for commercial houses, said Hu Cunzhi, director of the planning department of MLR.

"The move is designed to increase the housing supply, and therefore to hold down the fast growth of land and housing prices, " said Hu.

The ministry last year tightly control the land supply to reduce fixed assets investment. The price of land rose 6.1 percent in 2004, while housing price reported a record growth of 14.4 percent, 10.6 percentage points higher than 2003.

Although more land is allocated to the property sector now, China's overall land supply will continue to be tight this year, Hu said.

Source: Xinhua