Shanghai to control car license prices  

上海发力遏制车牌价格 打击“炒车牌”

上海市交港局局长孙建平26日在此间参加“民生访谈”时称，上海新的私车牌照拍卖办法正在修改制定中，有望下半年出台。该办法将着力让上海车牌价格稳中有降，并打击遏制投机炒作行为。

Shanghai (CNS) -- An amended regulation on the auction of private car licenses in Shanghai is expected to be released this year, according to Sun Jianping, director of the Shanghai Transport and Port Administration on Sunday.

The regulation is expected to crack down on speculative car plate trading and curb the rise of car plate prices.

Related government departments in Shanghai have issued several policies to regulate the market in the past two months.

According to a regulation delivered in March, the price of a secondhand car plate should not exceed the auction price of new car plates.

A price ceiling was also applied at Shanghai's monthly car plate auction as part of the local government's efforts to cool the market.

These moves came as the average successful bid at March's auction reached just over 90,000 yuan ($14,530).

But thanks to the new policies, car plate prices dropped for the second consecutive month at Saturday's auction.

The average successful bid for a Shanghai car plate fell to 80,803 yuan, down 3,298 yuan from last month.