The Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Land and Resources have announced new measures to tighten control over real estate supply, transaction, land supply, and property security, the Shanghai Securities Journal reported.   The Ministry of Construction said that while government’s macro controls have curbed speculative investment in the property sector to a certain extent, the supply of low-cost housing is still inadequate to meet the needs of the middle class. The ministry requires local governments to thoroughly execute five measures. First, macro controls need to be strengthened to direct reasonable property consumption.  Second, priority should be given to medium-sized, low-cost housing.  Third, the monitoring system needs to be strengthened to improve supervision in the sector.  Fourth, support should be given step-by-step to relieve the accommodation burden for low-income families.  Fifth, greater coordination is needed for demolishing and constructing buildings.   At the same time, the Ministry of Land and Resources also announced new five measures to regulate the current flawed land management system.  First, the cost of land acquisition would be raised.  Second, the income and expenditure management of land acquisition is strictly regulated.  Third, the standard of land compensation fees would be raised; i.e., the minimum pricing system for land acquisition would be unified across the country.  Fifth, taxes on construction and land acquisition would be tightened.   An expert with E-house China Research and Development Institute commented that the newly-announced measures further tightened control over the real estate sector with comparatively harsh measures in every stage of the property chain. However, whether they can bring about concrete results significantly depends on whether they can be thoroughly executed on a local level and whether the local accountability system is truly successful.