Aerial photo taken on Aug 13, 2020 shows a view of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Shenzhen on Monday became China’s first city to release a reference price list for second-hand houses in 3,595 residential communities, in a bid to curb speculation after rocketing real estate prices in the city in 2020 topped all Chinese mainland first-tier cities.

The Shenzhen Housing and Construction Bureau, which issued the list, said it also aims to guide real estate agencies to issue reasonable listing prices and help commercial banks to control loan risks through a higher level of information transparency.

Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong housing policy research center, estimated that the novel mechanism could help avoid homeowners putting on huge price increases, which has happened in the past

The bureau hopes that the regular release of official reference prices will help to curb rising housing prices.

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Some projects’ prices in the list are much lower than the market price. Taking a residential building complex in Guangming district as an example, its latest transaction price on the apartment hunting app Beike Zhaofang is 82,895 yuan (US$12,840) per square meter, while its average reference price is 51,900 yuan per square meter.

The housing authority stated the reference price is based on factors such as the transaction prices on official websites and the prices of new houses nearby.

Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong housing policy research center, estimated that the novel mechanism could help avoid homeowners putting on huge price increases, which has happened in the past.

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However, he said that the underlying problem with the city’s second-hand home market is a supply shortage, so the key for the new measure to work is whether home buyers and sellers follow the reference price for transactions.