Newspaper urges privacy-transparency balance in real-estate registration BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese newspaper article has urged efforts to strike a balance between privacy protection and the public's right to know in establishing the country's real-estate registration system. There need to be restrictions on requests for information to protect citizens' privacy. However, any approach that sets excessively strict terms and denies supervision attempts should be avoided," said an article published in the Sunday edition of the Beijing Youth Daily under the byline of the newspaper's commentator Pan Hongqi. An official announced on Saturday that China will set up a bureau for real estate registration to facilitate property management reform. Authorities will also form an unified real-estate registration platform and improve information management and inquiry services related to real estate, according to the official. The newspaper article said real estate generally constitutes the bulk of Chinese citizens' private assets while a unified system will enable information to be obtained about one's assets. While strict regulation governing information requests may well protect citizens' privacy, it should be possible to ease certain restrictions to facilitate authorities' supervision and the public's right to know when it comes to officials' assets that may involve important public interests, the article said. The unified registration system will also help with the reporting of officials' personal information, it went on. The Chinese public has been shocked by cases exposed by whistleblowers about owners of multiple properties such as "Sister House" Gong Ai'ai and "Uncle House" Cai Bin. Last year, Cai, a former senior police officer, was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for bribe-taking after an online post claimed that he has more than 20 houses. Gong was also sentenced to three years in prison for forging IDs and residency records to purchase houses. China to establish real estate registration office BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China will set up a bureau for real estate registration to facilitate property management reform, China's top land and resources regulator said on Saturday. The establishment of the bureau is designed to improve unified system design for registration as China will spell out related regulations this year, Xu Deming, vice minister of land and resources said at a work-planning meeting. China builds more affordable housing BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's government has stepped up efforts to make housing accessible to low-income earners as property prices have sky-rocketed, new data from the country's housing authorities revealed on Thursday. The country started the construction of 24.9 million affordable housing units from 2011 to 2013, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the construction target of 36 million affordable units during the 2011-2015 period, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Real estate tax unlikely to suppress China's house prices: economist BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Speculation is not the cause of China's hefty house prices and the introduction of a real estate tax in the future is unlikely to suppress the country's rising house prices, according to noted Chinese economist Wu Jinglian. Wu made the remarks at a forum held in Shanghai by the China Europe International Business School, Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday.