Christopher Balding, Columnist

China's Housing Gets Scarily Expensive

The government thinks it can control prices. It's not working.

Not cheap.

Photographer: Johannes Eisele/AFP
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For many years, China's authorities took a Goldilocks approach to housing prices: They wanted a market that was neither too hot nor too cold, and took measures as needed to control prices. Although an explicit asset-price target was never announced, it was widely assumed that the government wanted home prices to grow in line with the rate of economic growth.

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