Chinese City Bordering North Korea to Curb Overheating Property Market – Dandong

15:33 GMT, 14 May 2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Dandong, a city in Northeast China that sits on the border with North Korea, released a series of new rules as part of its efforts to cool down the overheating local property market, the local government said in a statement on its official WeChat account.

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"New properties purchased in the restricted areas by non-local residents can only be sold two years after the housing sales contract is signed," the statement said, citing a set of new rules introduced by the local government to ensure the "stable and healthy" growth of the city’s property market.

The new rules also set the minimum down payment for new properties to 50 percent of the total price, up from the national average of 25 percent.

Investors flooded Dandong trying to cash in on prospects of booming business with North Korea as tensions started to ease on the Korean Peninsula, highlighted by the historic inter-Korean summit last month and the highly anticipated meeting between the US and North Korean leaders in June. Average housing prices in Dandong jumped to almost 5,000 yuan (about $789) per square meter in May, almost doubling from 3,000 yuan per square meter in March, according to Chinese media reports.

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Bilateral relations between Beijing and Pyongyang also improved significantly in recent months. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with Chinese president Xi Jinping for the second time in two months during his visit to Dalian in Northeast China last week. The North Korean leader made a groundbreaking surprise visit to Beijing in late March, his first since taking office in late 2011.