The bad news is price-to-income ratios in China's leading cities are still high: 12.4 in Shanghai, 11.6 in Beijing and 15.6 in Shenzhen. Affordability has been improving since the correction started l
The bad news is price-to-income ratios in China's leading cities are still high: 12.4 in Shanghai, 11.6 in Beijing and 15.6 in Shenzhen. "Affordability has been improving since the correction started last year. But it's not been happening quickly enough. That is why the central government has insisted on maintaining its policies," said Wei Yao, economist with Societe Generale.
坏消息是，中国主要城市的房价收入比仍非常高：上海12.4，北京11.6，深圳为15.6。法国兴业银行(Societe Generale)的经济学家姚伟表示："自去年开始调控以来，人们的房价负担能力有所提高，但提高的速度还不够快。这就是中央政府继续坚持调控政策的原因。
"Qingdao, best known as the home of Tsingtao beer, is one of the many places caught in the crossfire of the government's campaign to cool the property market. Its houses are among the most affordable of China's major cities – with a price-to-income ratio of exactly seven last year – and yet sales have plummeted by a third this year.
以青岛啤酒闻名于世的青岛，是因政府采取房地产市场降温措施而陷入困境的众多城市之一。青岛是人们最负担得起房价的主要城市之一，去年房价收入比正好是7，但今年房屋销量仍暴跌三分之一。
It is not hard to see why. In Century Town's showroom, the faux marble columns are overshadowed by a giant sign with large red text explaining the government's home purchaserestriction rule. The single most powerful weapon in Beijing's arsenal of real estate controls, it prevents existing homeowners from buying a second property.
原因并不难理解。在世纪城的样板间，一面用大红字体解释政府限购政策的巨大标牌遮住了人造大理石石柱。限购是中国政府房地产调控政策"弹药库"中最有力的武器，它限制了现有房屋业主购买第二套住房。
"This has suppressed a lot of demand. People have waited and waited for prices to collapse," said Chang Le, a construction engineer at Century Town who has seen the pace of building work slow significantly. "We can go back over our old work and do the same thing twice, but there isn't really much useful new work to do."
世纪城建筑工程师常乐已见证了建筑施工速度大幅放缓，他表示："这种政策抑制了大量的需求。人们一直等着价格崩盘。我们可以回过头重复以前的工作，将同样的工作做两遍，但现在真的没有多少有用的 新工作可做。
"According to Mr Chang, the development, designed to house 50,000 people over an area as big as 250 football fields, was intended to be completed by 2014. With just a handful of tower blocks complete and most of the land lying untouched, he says 2018 is more likely.
常乐表示，这是一个面积足有250个足球场大、可容纳5万人居住的开发项目，计划在2014年完工。他称，由于目前仅有少数几个塔楼完工，大部分土地仍未动工，该项目更有可能在2018年才完工。
But the buyers are still coming. On a recent visit, Ken Zhang walked carefully across planks over an open pit to a half-finished building to show his girlfriend the apartment he had just bought but will not take possession of until next year. "Everyone has been paying attention to this development, because it is a big one. I saw the prices go down and I thought they were now reasonable. I can't see them falling by much more," he said.
但仍有前来看房的买家。在最近的一次看房中，张肯（音）小心翼翼地走过横在露天坑洞上的木板，来到一幢半完工的楼前，让他的女友看他刚刚购买但明年才会入住的公寓。他表示："由于这个项目非常大，所以所有人都在关注。我看到价格跌下来了，我想目前的价格是合理的。我认为房价不可能下跌太多。
"But trying to engineer the perfect housing market correction–cooling prices in big cities while stimulating construction elsewhere–may prove too much for China's central planners.
但对中国中央计划者们而言，进行完美的住房市场调控——让大城市房价下跌，同时刺激其它城市的建筑活动——可能有些吃力。
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