MORE than 80 percent of respondents in an online survey said China's restrictive housing policies are ineffective, and expect to see more measures to rein in the galloping price of real estate.

The survey, released yesterday and answered by more than 46,000 people, followed the announcement of two new moves by authorities to slow down housing speculation.

In answer to the People's Daily survey, 86 percent of respondents said the policies started in April were not properly implemented; 89 percent said supervision is problematic; and 86 percent questioned the reliability of the housing data.

Liu Hongyu, director of the Institute of Real Estate at Tsinghua University, said it was natural that people would express deep dissatisfaction when housing prices remain stubbornly high more than five months after the policies were put in motion.

"People had high expectations for affordable properties when the authorities announced the rein-in measures in April," Liu said. "But since then, they only saw prices stabilize, rather than the cuts that people have long sought."

For 75 percent of the survey's respondents, "affordable property" means a price under 8,000 yuan (US$1,195) per square meter. And 51 percent prefer a price less than 4,000 yuan.

But housing at those prices is just a dream in places like Shanghai. A downtown property can easily cost 40,000 yuan per square meter. Even properties near the city's outskirts have surged in price in the past year.

This month, the average price for new homes in Shanghai - excluding those for residents relocated by city redevelopment plans - was 20,011 yuan per square meter.

"The sharp gap between people's expectations and the reality concerning prices is another source for their deep dissatisfaction," Liu added.

"The policies did not shake the prices. It is not a fault of the policies in themselves, but of people who carry them out."

In April, China announced "tough" moves to curb housing speculation such as limiting loans for buyers of a second property and raising their down payment.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Land and Resources, together with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said in a joint statement that companies failing to develop land more than a year after winning sites via auctions will be banned from bidding for more land.

And cities failing to meet the central government's public-housing requirement will be barred from offering land for luxury housing.

The state authorities reiterated that local governments must allocate at least 70 percent of land in auction for the development of subsidized public apartments and small- and medium-sized homes.