May 17, 2012
Economic Observer Online
Translated by Zhu Na
Original article: [Chinese]

The housing ministry's much-discussed database of home ownership will be launched next month in forty Chinese cities, Guangzhou Daily reported Thursday.

Commentators have said that the data will embarass those government officials who own homes that they couldn't have acquired on their modest official salaries. The newspaper reported that the only people able to access the database will be authorised civil servants.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that cities covered will include Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xian and Wuhan.