THE MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN-RURAL DEVELOPMENT recently introduced new measures to better strike against nine illegal business activities of real estate developers. The move is welcome as illegal activities such as falsifying information about their development programs harm others, says a commentary article on xinhuanet.com:

In the last few months, property prices have risen sharply in several second-tier cities, such as Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu province and Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan province. The municipal governments have already taken measures such as tighter control on loans to cool the real estate markets in these cities.

Yet the ministry has highlighted a real problem in unambiguously saying that those spreading false information should be punished.

Past experiences show that abrupt, abnormal rises in property prices always have something to do with rumors. Some real estate developers spread false information that their newly developed houses have sold out, while some property agents spread rumors about tighter policies. Their common aim is to spread panic in the market and press people to rush to buy houses without carefully considering their decisions.

These nine kinds of activities are illegal and threaten the healthy order of the real estate market. More important, they hurt the legal interests of many families, who use the lifesavings of several generations to buy property.

It is time the government intervened with its visible hand. Central and local governments must regulate the real estate market and help it return to normal. The ministry and the municipal governments have done the right thing by cracking down on illegal activities and introducing tighter restrictions on loans.

But normal market order cannot be achieved by the government alone. Enterprises must play their roles well, too. Recently 20 large realty enterprises jointly promised not to spread false information about their property developments, which is a good start and we hope they will honor that promise.

For ordinary families, a house is often their biggest investment, so a property market filled with rumors will hurt the interests of the residents. It is time for all sides, namely the government, enterprises and residents to join hands and maintain a healthy realty market.