FOREIGN investors hoping to cash in on China's burgeoning real-estate market will have to think again.

New and wide-ranging guidelines that become effective on December 1 were released yesterday.

In the guidelines, the central government also clarifies which industries are no-go areas for foreign capital and which are encouraged.

Investors who want to profit from China's emerging golf courses, gaming services and ammunitions manufacturing, for example, are banned.

The document containing the guidelines was issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce.

Authorities will restrict foreign capital flowing into the development of large-scale land lots and the construction and operation of high-end hotels, villas, office towers and exhibition malls.

Foreign funds being funneled into housing agents, brokerages and the second-tier real-estate market will also face restrictions, it says.

Industry insiders have blamed overseas capital for soaring housing prices on China's mainland in recent years.

In the first nine months of this year, developers pumped 2.54 trillion yuan (US$341 billion) into housing projects across the mainland, reported the China News Service, citing the National Statistics Bureau.

Of the figure, 42.3 billion yuan was from foreign investors, a rise of 60 percent year on year, the report said.

In the first nine months, total foreign direct investment in China expanded 10.9 percent from a year earlier to US$47.2 billion.

The mainland's real-estate market has became overseas investors' second-biggest target after the information technology and electronics sector in recent years.

Authorities will also cap the ratio of foreign funds at 50 percent for a life-insurance company, a third for a securities company and 49 percent for a funds-management business specializing in stocks, according to the new guidelines.