每日英语：Is China's Property Market Topping Out?

China’s economy has only just turned the corner after seven consecutive quarters of slowing growth, but people are already looking for signs of overheating.

property market：房地产市场　　turn the corner：拐弯，转危为安　　　　

A key worry is the housing market. Unable to easily move their money overseas and distrustful of the stock market, Chinese households have tended to dump cash into real estate when the economy is doing well.

distrustful of：怀疑，对...不信任　　　　

“People have so much money they don’t know where to put it,” J.P. Morgan’s Jing Ulrich told an audience of journalists on Feb. 25. “Property prices are a reflection of overall liquidity in the system.”

China’s property cycle is incredibly short, typically lasting only 14 months, Ms. Ulrich said. If the market bottomed out in May or June of last year, we are nine months into the process.

Property developers have spent the last few months raising funds, buying more land and ramping up construction and sales, Ms. Ulrich said. It might be time to start looking for a peak.

ramp up：增加，增强

The exact timing of the cycle’s end will likely depend on the government. It watches the housing market closely and is quick to step in when things start looking frothy.

frothy：泡沫的

Chinese home buyers in tend to put down a lot more cash and borrow less than their Western counterparts, so interest-rate hikes have less impact on the market. Instead, the government has used requirements for minimum down payments and restrictions on buying multiple homes to cool things down.

Though they never formally relaxed the rules, Ms. Ulrich said authorities judiciously started taking a more laid back attitude to enforcement when it became clear the market was stuttering in the second half of 2012.

judiciously：明智地　　　　stuttering：口吃，结巴

Now she is on the lookout for renewed signs of zeal in enforcing the curbs, which would be the easiest way to suppress demand. Buying restrictions could also be extended beyond the 40 or so cities where they are now in force.

In the long run, Ms. Ulrich said, a property tax now being trialed in Shanghai and Chongqing will surely be introduced in other cities.

That would be a wake-up call for some buyers. It is not unusual for people to buy flats and keep them empty, figuring that the premium for selling them in mint condition will be more than the rent. A recurring property tax would change the economics of that strategy.

premium：保险费，奖金

“Fundamentally we need a property market that’s more stable than this 14-month cycle,” Ms. Ulrich says. “I think it’s the right thing to clamp down on rampant speculative buying.”

rampant：猖獗的，蔓延的，狂暴的，奔放的　　　　speculative buying：投机采购

Aspiring homeowners, gazing up at the bottom rung of the housing ladder, might tend to agree.