Faced with underperforming stock markets and low yields on bank deposits, Chinese investors long saw property as the best means to make and store wealth, driving up real estate prices. Now the markets have recovered, profit taking has given the real estate sector fresh impetus reports the Economic Daily.

Government efforts to cool the property sector have had little effect. Guo Jun, the chairman of the SOMO Real Estate Group and a columnist for China Real Estate News, argues on sina.com that the government first needs to address the conflict between property's role as a commodity and as a cornerstone of the nation's welfare requirements.