SHANGHAI — Four Chinese cities have announced new restrictions on property purchases as the government tries to cool soaring home prices stoked by property speculators in second- and third-tier cities across the country.The measures in Chengdu, Jinan, Wuhan and Zhengzhou were the latest in a string of steps to tighten credit flowing into the property sector as the government tries to balance the need to prevent bubbles while stimulating economic growth.The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, meanwhile, has investigated and punished 45 property developers and intermediaries for encouraging speculation via false advertising, the spreading of rumours and breaking presale rules, the official Xinhua news agency reported.A spate of credit tightening measures over the past two weeks "shows that China’s top level may have reached consensus that the concerns about overheating in property market may have overshadowed the concerns about the economic slowdown", OCBC said in a resea...
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