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Amid fears of inflation and problems for financial institutions, China’s government has announced new measures to make it tougher for foreigners to invest in China’s property market.

The new rules will ban foreign firms and individuals from buying homes that they do not intend to live in.

They must have lived in China for at least a year before qualifying to buy housing and property under their own name.

“Though there has always been a claim that foreign capital pushes up prices, both the government and research department lacked detailed data on this so the name register will give a clearer picture”, said China Merchants Securities analyst, Yu Zhiyong.

China has already banned the building of luxury homes on new land to make affordable property available to poorer families and its central bank is tightening scrutiny on lending to limit “excessive investment and loans growth” (source: BBC.co.uk)