Government departments at various levels should use regulative powers to curb rising housing prices, said deputies attending sessions of the top advisory body and legislature in Beijing yesterday.
Zheng gongcheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress, said confusion in the real estate market was due to inadequate supervision to control "unreasonably high" housing prices.
"Developers have reaped exceedingly high profits in the current chaotic real estate market," said Zheng, urging governments to develop more low-rent, affordable housing projects to cater to the large group of low and middle-income home buyers.
Li yining, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and an economist at Beijing University, said: "Government departments should be held accountable for providing needy and low-income earners with accommodation."
The inability to purchase a home or apartment in many cities has become the top concern of wage-earners, whose salary increases rarely match soaring real estate prices.
In downtown Shanghai, the price of luxury residential housing can reach 50,000 yuan (US$6,050) per square meter, the equivalent of the annual income of a person with a decent job, said NPC deputy Yu Guosheng, from Shanghai.
According to the National Statistics Bureau, the average commercial housing price stood at 2,777 yuan per square meter in the first nine months of 2004, a rise of 13 percent year-on-year.
The figure shot up in 35 major cities during the fourth quarter last year, or up 10.8 percent on a yearly basis.
A survey by the State Development and Reform Commission shows the average housing price to income ratio is approaching 12:1 in cities such as Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province. The ratio should range between 4:1 and 6:1 in developing nations, according to the World Bank.
Guo songhai, a scholar at Shandong Economic College said:  "Houses are special commodities. They should not be speculated like stocks and other virtual products."