The new government regulation on forbidding office usage of residential building is a double-edged sword that may not be helpful in curbing property prices, Economic Information daily reported.   Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce has recently started to forbid office usage of residences by terminating registration of business license if the company registers a residence as office address. The new regulation triggers off debate over whether it can curb property prices or not and whether it worth risking increase of company’s operational cost.   Even before Beijing’s move, many cities include Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian have released similar regulations. The real estate sector says that it may not be a good measure to calm the overheating property prices and instead, help its further acceleration.   While demands from residential rentals from many companies in big cities are high so property prices are increased, many seize the opportunity and the resulted speculative investment acts as a catalyst to the sector. In this sense, the new regulation can reduce the demands for residences and thus negative speculative investment.   Associate Secretary of Zhong Guan Cun Real Estate Association, Dai Jian, commented that the measure can readjust unhealthy development of Beijing’s real estate sector and prevent excessive investment.   Many worry that the regulation increases the demands for offices, which are what Beijing lacks, and in turn stimulates commercial property investment. This will push the office prices to a high level.   Xun Peilu at Association of China Cities Commercial Construction Management estimated that the new regulation will transform the investor’s strategy to pull money from residential investment and place it into office and shopping outlets which will certainly increase these property prices.   The new regulation also makes administrative procedure and registration new undertakers more complicated. Not only they have to face 2 to 3 times more office rental but also more complex legal issues.   A sales director at a real estate agency in Beijing pointed out that it would be unfair to some residential/office projects that have already formulated infrastructure for potential office usage. Vacancy rate would definitely increase while the supply of office cannot satisfy the number of companies exist in the city.