The movement against lodging purchase supported by 16 000 Chinese

SHENZHEN, 10 may 2006 (XINHUA) -- Confronted with the running-up prices of lodging, Zou Tao, a citizen of Shenzhen -a special economic zone in Guangdong (south)- called in late April in an open letter to the Chinese public for not buying flats for 3 years to normalise the market.
According to some statistics, over 16000 citizens expressed their support to this initiative either by phone or by Internet from April 26th to May 8th.
The 32-year-old Zou Tao is known for his social commitment. He has represented the consumers of Shenzhen on many occasions since 2004 and has studied the anomalous phenomenon of the real estate market.
Zou has written in late April an open letter against the lodging purchase wherein he bring again into question the price of the lodgings and asks the government to take stronger measures to handle the situation. He has also asked the Chinese public not to buy any flats for 3 years.
Zou explains that the movement is not against any real-estate purchase, but urges people to reasonably choose their lodging. According to him, the government has got to consider two aspects: calming down the blowing-up prices by taking measures and constructing flats with lower rent or price.
Liu Xinggui, the Vice-Chancellor of the Law Faculty of Guangzhou University, county town of Guangdong, considers this movement as a social automatic supervision, which illustrates the gap existing between the consumers and the real estate promoters.