Tomson Riviera, a luxury apartment complex developed by Hong Kong-listed Tomson Group, is being probed by the Shanghai government for bogus transactions and price manipulation, Xinhua reported.
The project was one of three under the city's investigation, which aims at resuming order in the market by punishing those who either deliberately delay sales or push up prices illegally, Xinhua said, citing the Shanghai Municipal Housing, Land and Resources Administration Bureau.
The other two projects are Jiahe International, developed by Shanghai Jiahe Real Estate and launched for sale in March this year, and Jingwei City Greenland developed by Shanghai Jingwei Real Estate, which has been available for sale since October last year.
The investigation was revealed as Beijing renewed efforts to cool the fast-growing property market. To achieve that goal, it had earlier launched measures such as imposing capital gains tax on transactions and repeatedly urging lenders to crimp loans to developers.
Premier Wen Jiabao has said that Beijing would strictly control high-end property projects to avoid a property bubble. The government is also planning to promote low-cost housing to curb prices.
Xinhua yesterday said that Shanghai's housing bureau would take action on developers who held out on apartment sales, hired sales agents to organise people to queue up pretending they were interested in purchases or engaged in other illegal activities such as selling or leasing units without obtaining proper certificates.