by Bloomberg News
Bloomberg.com
Shanghai officials announced stricter real-estate regulations Friday to help cool a market where new-home prices soared 21 percent in February from a year earlier. Buyers will need to show they’ve been in the city for five years, and some second homes will require down payments of at least 70 percent. Gu Jinshan, chief of the city housing management commission, said at a press conference Friday that the lure of profit is so strong that couples are getting phony divorces to double their buying power by skirting rules that restrict purchases to one per household.