BEIJING: A number of provincial capitals across China have rolled out new curbs to further slow home property sales, and bear down on lingering speculators that could destabilize markets ahead of a key Communist Party congress next month.
Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, has banned investors from selling newly bought homes for up to five years, while Changsha, capital of Hunan province, has barred homeowners from buying a second property for up to three years from the time of their first home purchase, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Changsha has also limited property sales to non-local residents to one unit per person.
Home prices have surged since late 2015, with the country’s biggest cities including Shenzhen and Shanghai the first to see huge spikes in their markets. Provincial capitals started to join in the fray last summer as speculators flooded into tier-two cities.
The government, concerned about potential instability posed by frothy property markets and soaring credit growth, has increasingly clamped down on speculators since late last year, unleashing a series of restrictions to douse the country’s super-hot home property markets.
Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.2 percent in August this year from July, the slowest pace in seven months, according to the latest official data.
Prices of homes in China’s tier-one cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou either fell from a month earlier or were unchanged. One outlier was Chongqing, in southwest China, where prices inched up 0.3 percent from July.
Authorities in Chongqing, along with those in Nanchang in the Jiangxi province, have since banned transactions of new and second-hand homes for two years after purchase, according to documents published on the municipal governments’ official websites.
The various measures took effect last week.
Additionally, Xian, capital of Shaanxi province, has told developers from Monday to report home prices to local price-monitoring departments before sale, and reiterated its pledge to crack down on property price manipulation and speculation.
Signs of a more stable housing market will be good news for the Communist Party as it prepares for a once-in-five-years congress, a politically sensitive time.
China’s property market has become a major source of financial risk. A central bank official earlier this month said authorities needed to maintain strict controls over property markets in first and second-tier cities where prices gains have been the strongest.
Short-term household loans in August doubled from July to 216.5 billion yuan ($32.85 billion), as some home buyers may be turning to short-term consumer loans due to curbs on mortgages, analysts say.
Chinese cities impose new property controls to curb speculation
Chinese cities impose new property controls to curb speculation
Kuwait to boost Islamic finance with sukuk regulation
- The move supports sustainable financing and is part of Kuwait’s efforts to diversify its oil-dependent economy
RIYADH: Kuwait is planning to introduce legislation to regulate the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, both domestically and internationally, as part of efforts to support more sustainable financing for the oil-rich Gulf nation, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Al-Sabah highlighted that Kuwait is exploring a variety of debt instruments to diversify its economy. The country has been implementing fiscal reforms aimed at stimulating growth and controlling its budget deficit amid persistently low oil prices. Hydrocarbons continue to dominate Kuwait’s revenue stream, accounting for nearly 90 percent of government income in 2024.
The Gulf Cooperation Council’s debt capital market is projected to exceed $1.25 trillion by 2026, driven by project funding and government initiatives, representing a 13.6 percent expansion, according to Fitch Ratings.
The region is expected to remain one of the largest sources of US dollar-denominated debt and sukuk issuance among emerging markets. Fitch also noted that cross-sector economic diversification, refinancing needs, and deficit funding are key factors behind this growth.
“We are about to approve the first legislation regulating issuance of government sukuk locally and internationally, in accordance with Islamic laws,” Al-Sabah said.
“This enables us to deal with financial challenges flexibly and responsibly, and to plan for medium and long-term finances.”
Kuwait returned to global debt markets last year with strong results, raising $11.25 billion through a three-part bond sale — the country’s first US dollar issuance since 2017 — drawing substantial investor demand. In March, a new public debt law raised the borrowing ceiling to 30 billion dinars ($98 billion) from 10 billion dinars, enabling longer-term borrowing.
The Gulf’s debt capital markets, which totaled $1.1 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2025, have evolved from primarily sovereign funding tools into increasingly sophisticated instruments serving governments, banks, and corporates alike. As diversification efforts accelerate and refinancing cycles intensify, regional issuers have become regular participants in global debt markets, reinforcing the GCC’s role in emerging-market capital flows.
In 2025, GCC countries accounted for 35 percent of all emerging-market US dollar debt issuance, excluding China, with growth in US dollar sukuk issuance notably outpacing conventional bonds. The region’s total outstanding debt capital markets grew more than 14 percent year on year, reaching $1.1 trillion.
