China promises more effort to cool housing costs; more low-cost housing

BEIJING (AP) - China's government ordered local officials on Wednesday to do more to cool surging housing costs after a scandal over a bank employee who bought 45 properties highlighted the potential for evasion of ownership limits.

A Cabinet statement also directed local leaders to build more low-cost housing.

Soaring Chinese housing prices have made fortunes for some people but pushed home ownership out of reach of millions of families, fueling political tensions.

The government pledge comes as a new generation of Communist Party leaders who took power in November are promising more action to narrow the wealth gap between an elite who have benefited from economic reform and China's poor majority.