The Dalian government recently issued a notice to strengthen the regulation of the real estate market, allowing no increases in local real estate prices.

For new projects applying for presale licenses for the first time after July 18, the actual online signing record price (between seller and buyer) shall not exceed the price declared previously to the administrative institution, and the price shall not drop by more than 5 percent, according to the notice.

The notice says Dalian has strengthened the monitoring instruction on the price of commodity housing projects, including apartments, sold in several popular districts of the city.

All real estate projects must declare the booking commodity housing price. After approval, the declared price will be entered into the online record system of the administrative institution. When the seller and buyer sign a contract online, the actual price should not surpass the declared price.

The notice has been effective since the date of issuance on July 18 and will be adjusted in due course according to market conditions.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on May 18, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development issued a warning to four cities, namely Foshan, Suzhou, Dalian and Nanning, where the price index of newly built commercial houses and secondhand homes has increased significantly in the past three months.

This is the second time within one year that Dalian received a notification by the ministry because of the rapid rise of housing and land prices.