Experts said increasing land supply is part of the government's efforts to cool the overheated property market.

"The sharp increase in land supply for residential property will suppress land grab by developers and stabilize public expectations about housing prices," said Dong Fan, director of the research center of property market under Beijing Normal University.

Liao Yingmin, researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said: "Increasing areas for low-cost housing, renovated shanty houses and smaller houses is conducive to boosting housing supply and satisfying demand of mid- and low-income families."

China has begun to take moves to curb the excessive growth of home prices since late last year, including a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase and raising down payment requirement for families buying a second or more houses with bank loans.

However, these measures appeared ineffective in preventing housing prices from rising further.

Home prices in China's 70 large- and medium-sized cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou increased 11.7 percent in March from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday in a statement on its website.

"This year's plan has better supply structure than before as it stresses the supply for low-cost housing and smaller apartments," Liao Yonglin said.

The central government said late Wednesday the down payment for first-time home buyers whose apartments' floor areas exceed 90 square meters would be raised from 20 percent to 30 percent.

It also required second-time buyers to pay at least 50 percent of the purchase price as down payment and loan rates should at least be 110 percent of the benchmark interest rates.

"These measures demonstrated the government's determination to rein in runaway property market. And I hope it can roll out better-targeted policies in the future to rein in speculation and keep housing prices at a reasonable level," Liao Yingmin said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2010)