Beijing may do more to address homebuyers’ concerns about rising house prices, said Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development spokesperson Xu Zhijun.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Xu said the local government may introduce additional financial measures including ones related to taxation and credit availability.

“Our target and decision to stabilize housing prices have never changed,” he said. “Besides, local government will construct more affordable houses for low-income families to ease pressure and support the healthy development of the real estate market.”

Statistics released on Tuesday show newly-constructed affordable housing projects accounted for 36.48 million square meters of real estate between 2006 and 2010. Affordable housing comprised 33.3 percent of all residential real estate in the city.

And the average residential area per person reached 28.8 sq m in 2009, an 11.2 percent increase from the 25.9 sq m each person enjoyed in 2005.

Xu said affordable housing projects set for the following five years will account for 60 percent of residential real estate projects.

He added that homebuyers’ safety concerns were the inspiration for vigorous quality checks on all new homes during recent years.

The news followed high-profile incidents involving safety that included the demolition of six under-construction high-rises in Beijing because of the use of poor quality cement.

He said Beijing was the first city in the country to creatively establish a system through which it carries out quality checks on every new home.

The system that tracks the work of construction companies, monitoring organizations and material providers began in 2006.

Back then, almost 25 percent of homes failed quality checks.

They were found to have such problems as cracks in walls, leaks and poor insulation around windows and doors.

Xu said things have improved and the local government has brought in more than 90 regulations pertaining to the safety of projects and ensured the quality checks explore every step of the construction process.

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Car owners and experts have expressed concern about a draft plan from the local government to increase parking fees in a bid to ease congestion.

The idea from the municipal commission of development and reform was posted on the commission’s website on Monday to gauge public opinion. The posting followed the release of another more general traffic management draft by the municipal commission of transportation.

The latest plan divides the city into three zones according to its level of congestion, with higher parking fees suggested for highly congested areas.

Under the plan, parking lots at street level will also be more expensive than those in underground facilities.

In some of the capital’s busiest areas such as the Central Business District and Zhongguancun, parking fees will increase to 10 yuan an hour at street level for the first hour and 6 yuan for underground lots.

Yang Hongshan, deputy director of the department of urban planning at Renmin University of China, said the proposal will “definitely” cause more congestion outside the core area, especially between the Third and Fourth Ring Roads as people choose to park there instead of the more expensive city center.

Official figures show there were 4.73 million vehicles registered in the capital as of Dec 12 and some 34.8 percent of commuters use cars to get to work in the city’s core, which is more than twice that of New York and London.

The plan also calls for an additional 50,000 public parking spaces downtown and 200,000 more in residential communities.

And it says Beijing should build large parking lots near subway transfer stations outside the Fourth Ring Road for 30,000 cars.

Those lots will be cheaper than downtown lots with fees of only 2 yuan and will encourage the use of public transportation.

A sales manager with a foreign company in the CBD surnamed Huan said he almost resorted to taking the subway to work when fees in the lot beneath his workplace went up from 2 yuan an hour to 5 yuan an hour a few months ago.

“Considering that I park my car there for a considerable time each day, it is expensive,” he said.

But Huan said it is still more convenient for him to travel by car than it is to use public transportation.

In Tokyo, planners took a similar approach to solve traffic problems. There, parking fees are the equivalent of between 40 and 60 yuan an hour. And in London’s key financial area, drivers pay the equivalent of about 420 yuan to park for a day, which is said to be the highest rate in the world.

“A public hearing about the proposed parking fees should be held because it will affect everyone living and working in the city,” said Yang from Renmin University of China.

Wang Binsheng, from the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said increased parking fees are acceptable, but the price should be decided by the market.

He suggested that fee collecting rights at public parking lots should be put under the hammer so that the price of parking lots can be fully open to the adjustments of the market.

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Traffic grinds to a halt on the North Fourth Ring Road on Saturday. [Photo/China Daily]

Friday’s rush hour in the capital is likely to begin a lot earlier than usual as people slip out of work because of Christmas Eve and join the regular end-of-the-week exodus.

The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau issued a warning to that effect, saying the rush is likely to begin at around 4 pm.

The bureau said the city’s busy leisure areas, such as Houhai, the Xidan shopping area and the Solana lifestyle shopping park, are likely to be among the busiest for traffic on Christmas Eve.

Evening shows slated for Happy Valley on Christmas Eve and abundant concerts and performances throughout the city will also mean the congestion could continue until late into the night.

The bureau has posted tips on its website and suggested ways for people to beat the gridlock that include alternative routes and encouraging travelers to take public transit.

The fact that the number of cars on city streets has been rising so quickly in recent months suggests the capital’s traffic woes will only worsen.

Statistics show that an additional 2,700 cars joined the city’s automobile population each day last week, bringing the total to 4.73 million. Traffic on the major ring roads in recent months is said to have increased by more than 30 percent.

The city took steps to ease traffic gridlock with the release of its draft traffic management plan on Dec 13.

There was widespread concern that it might mean limitations such as allowing only one car per family and limiting car sales to people with a Beijing hukou (permanent residency permit).

Another major concern among would-be car buyers was that current tax rebates and trade-in subsidies might be canceled.

“All of the concerns have created panic among potential car buyers,” said the sales manager of a Chang’an Avenue Suzuki store.

The manager, named Cao, said it looks like his dealership will have sold 300 cars by the end of the year. It sold 200 last year.

Beijing buyers snapped up roughly 96,000 cars in November, a year-on-year rise of 33 percent. That figure is expected to hit 100,000 this month, according to official figures.

“By the way, car buyers have been acting less sensitively to prices. As long as there is a car, they’ll buy it regardless of how expensive it is,” said Cao.

But even though many customers are ready to empty their wallets, it can be hard for them to find what they want.

“I visited four stores on Saturday looking for the models we want and each store had only one or two cars left. There is very limited choice,” said a 28-year-old office worker surnamed Cui.

Li Shaohua, vice-chairman of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, recently told local media that the fast increasing population of automobiles had heaped inconvenience on city residents.

Li said it is essential that the number be contained.

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