China's housing authorities on July 29 met with officials of cities of Yinchuan, Xuzhou, Jinhua, Quanzhou, and Huizhou, urging them to stabilize the property markets as real estate prices continue to skyrocket.

Ni Hong, vice-minister of Housing and Urban-rural Development, said these cities should tighten property market regulation and monitoring, maintaining sound and stable development.

Prices of residential housing and land have increased fast in these cities in the first half of this year, and market expectations have become unstable.

Ni requested officials of the cities to uphold the principle that "houses are for living in, not for speculation," asking them to refrain from using the property sector for short-term economic stimulus.

Ni also called for ramping up of efforts to establish a link mechanism between housing and land prices, developing affordable rental housing, and making two-way adjustments in supply and demand to regulate the market order.