(Yicai) Feb. 28 -- China has ordered all cities to draw up real estate development plans for this year and next and start drafting blueprints through 2030 to prevent major ups and downs in the housing market.

Cities need to make public this year’s plans by April 30 and next year’s by March 31, 2025, according to a notice posted yesterday on the website of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Chinese authorities do not usually require localities to set out the direction of new housing for two years in a row, said Feng Bo, vice president of the Chengdu branch of the China Urban Construction Design & Research Institute.

Moreover, the five-year outlines proposed this time put more emphasis on housing compared with previous plans that highlighted national economic and urban planning, Feng added.

The ministry's requirement for regular information disclosure reflects its concern about the seriousness of the downturn in the housing market and sends a signal to the market, added Wang Yeqiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Wang expects the government to go on rolling out various policy tools over the next two years to support the property market.

Cities’ five-year plans to 2030 should be disclosed by March 31, 2026, according to the notice. When implementing their plans, localities must publicly share relevant information before March 31 of each year. 

Editor: Emmi Laine