Dozens of Chinese cities, led by Beijing, adopted tougher-than-ever property restriction measures to curb the skyrocketing home prices.

On February 16, Beijing announced 15 measures to cool the housing market, which is the strictest among all cities. Basically, the new rule requires that non-Beijing residents must have paid their monthly social security contribution or income tax for five consecutive years before they are eligible to buy their first apartment in the city, while people with Beijing hukou, or permanent residence registration, will be limited to two properties.

Beijing's high real estate prices have caused huge complaints from the city's dwellers for years. Wealthy speculators who buy several pieces of real estate for investment purposes are the major reason why the prices haven't stopped their skyward trajectory.

Home prices in some major cities such as Beijing have more than doubled during the past two years. Property prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities rose 6.4 percent in December 2010 compared with the same month in 2009. In January, among the 70 large and medium-sized cities, 68 saw their property prices rise over the same month last year, and 10 of them witnessed a growth rate of over 10 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

As of February 21, a total of 14 cities have released the local package of rules on home purchase restrictions, all requiring local household registration status.

To further wipe out the cause of soaring home prices, the Central Government ordered more than 20 central state-owned enterprises (central SOEs), whose core business is not property, to fully exit the real estate market this year. Altogether, 14 central SOEs already exited the market in 2010.

In spite of the good intentions, people questioned the fairness in home purchases. Some argued that including hukou in the home purchase is a discrimination against non-hukou holders. Others worry once the government finds out its revenue shrinks substantially without the property trading taxes, it might ease the rules again, triggering a new surge in property prices.