Society
Corruption leads to high housing price
By Zhao Chunzhe (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-06 15:33
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A land official who accepted bribes totaling 1.1 million yuan ($161.118) has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison, China Youth Daily reported.
Li Youxiang, head of Hangzhou land department of Zhejiang province, received 12 and a half year in prison on December 25, 2009 for his part in the scandal where 67 officials were detained on suspicion of accepting bribes last year, including 15 high level officials.
Sources also believe the cash-for-land scandal could be behind a surge in housing prices with consumers unwittingly paying bribes to officials.
"The housing price is soaring for recent years, for which the real estate developers are mostly blamed. But the corruption in governments is also part of the reason," said an unnamed procurator.
"Real estate developers often transfer the bribery expense to housing prices and make the buyers pay for the bribes," he added.
