Suggestions of a property bubble developing on the mainland were dismissed by a senior economist at a cabinet think-tank yesterday who said there was 'very wide room for development' of the market.
Ba Shusong , deputy head of the State Development Research Centre's financial research institute, told a summit in Sanya , Hainan , that the growth of the property market had lagged behind overall economic growth.
'Therefore, [one] cannot blindly exaggerate the signs of a bubble in China's property sector,' Mr Ba was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
He said that in the United States, the property sector accounted for 20 to 30 per cent of the country's gross domestic product during the process of urbanisation. Thereafter, the level stood at 10 per cent.
But he said the mainland property sector accounted for only about 1 per cent of GDP.
'There will be huge room for growth [as the percentage grows] from 1 to 10 per cent. This shows that China's property market has very healthy prospects for development,' he said.
