Visitors examine a sales brochure on the opening day of a housing show at the Shanghai Exhibition Center yesterday. But a wait-and-see attitude was in force.

A WAIT-AND-SEE atmosphere seemed to cloud Shanghai's autumn property fair this year, with developers and home buyers uncertain how the market will respond to the government's recently announced policies to curb property speculation.

Most visitors to the annual Shanghai Autumn Real Estate Exhibition, which opened yesterday at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, chose to stay on the sidelines, amid expectations that housing prices may fall if a detailed tax policy on residential properties is introduced.

The four-day event, viewed - along with its spring exhibition - as one of the two barometers of the city's housing market, hosted around 220 real estate projects this year. These included residential and commercial developments designed for both end-users and investors in Shanghai, as well as neighboring areas such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

The number of developers in attendance was up by about 10 percent on the spring exhibition, while visitor flow on the first day was estimated to have risen by 20 percent, officials told Xinmin Evening News.

Even though several developers were offering promotional packages, they appear to have failed to entice home buyers, many of whom believe a tighter mortgage lending policy introduced last week is a prelude to further steps to rein in house prices.

In a small survey by the newspaper, 10 visitors selected at random agreed that the latest mortgage curbs could cap further price rises.

Wang Libin, a resident in Yangpu District, said he had no plans to buy in the current market, given that banks are reluctant to releasemortgages and few discounts are available. He believes prices will drop to "a rational level" if he waits until the government introduces a property tax.

The average house price in Shanghai remains above 20,000 yuan (US$2,950) per square meter.

On September 29, the central government ordered banks to stop providing mortgages to people buying a third property, or more, while individuals buying their first home must put down at least 30 percent of the total price, instead of 20 percent.

In April, China started to cool down the market by restricting credit to buyers of a second property. The moves crippled turnover - but didn't bring prices down.

Real estate prices in 70 major cities on the Chinese mainland rose 9.3 percent in August, extending their year-on-year gain for the 15th consecutive month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

• opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• atmosphere [´ætməsfiə] n.大气；空气；气氛 (初中英语单词)
• uncertain [ʌn´sə:tn] a.不定的；不可靠的 (初中英语单词)
• respond [ri´spɔnd] v.回答；响应；有反应 (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
• estate [i´steit] n.财产；庄园；等级 (初中英语单词)
• commercial [kə´mə:ʃəl] a.商业的 n.广告节目 (初中英语单词)
• neighboring [´neibəriŋ] a.邻近的；接壤的 (初中英语单词)
• visitor [´vizitə] n.访问者；来宾；参观者 (初中英语单词)
• survey [´sə:vei] vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量 (初中英语单词)
• release [ri´li:s] vt&n.释放；放松；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• available [ə´veiləbəl] a.可用的；有效的 (初中英语单词)
• bureau [´bjuərəu] n.局；编辑部；事务所 (初中英语单词)
• exhibition [eksi´biʃ(ə)n] n.展览；显示；表演 (高中英语单词)
• speculation [,spekju´leiʃən] n.思索，推测；投机 (高中英语单词)
• offering [´ɔfəriŋ] n.提供；礼物；捐献 (高中英语单词)
• mortgage [´mɔ:gidʒ] a.&vt.抵押 (高中英语单词)
• random [´rændəm] n.偶然的行动 (高中英语单词)
• resident [´rezidənt] a.居住的 n.居民 (高中英语单词)
• policy [´pɔlisi] n.政策；权谋；保险单 (英语四级单词)
• entice [in´tais] vt.诱惑；怂恿 (英语四级单词)
• reluctant [ri´lʌktənt] a.勉强的；难得到的 (英语四级单词)
• rational [´ræʃənəl] a.(有)理性的；合理的 (英语四级单词)
• mainland [´meinlənd] n.大陆；本土 (英语四级单词)
• statistics [stə´tistiks] n.统计学；统计 (英语四级单词)
• august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)
• consecutive [kən´sekjutiv] a.连续的；连贯的 (英语六级单词)