Figures released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed 66 of China's 70 major cities recorded month-on-month increases in housing prices for February, with Beijing posting a hike of 3.1 percent.

China's housing pricing has become a lasting domestic problem with the widest implications. The main difficulty lies in the division of interests related to housing prices. China has issued numerous measures to regulate property prices, but some local governments are not enthusiastic about implementing regulatory policies while people at the grass-roots level care about profiting through circumventing the policy.  

Public opinion doesn't truly reflect the complicated mentality toward housing prices. High housing prices have fueled wealth disparities between families in China's first- and second-tier cities. They have also widened the gap between homeowners and those who can't afford houses.

Soaring housing prices have a negative effect on people's view of property, limiting life choices and sowing seeds of discord in society. High prices benefit China's householders by sharply increasing their wealth, while greatly frustrating those without houses. It means new migrants are shut out of big cities.

It's notable that most victims of high property prices are young people. They are the backbone of city development, but desperation fueled by unaffordable housing warps their attitudes toward the country. In the long-term, high housing prices will evolve into a political issue.

Unveiling large-scale reforms that will hurt the interests of many homeowners now is risky. Strong opposition to further tightening controls of the property market, such as an income tax as high as 20 percent to be levied on second-hand housing transactions, offers us a clear signal. Some hold that China should lift controls and loosen regulation of the property market, but this opinion is only echoed by those who benefit from soaring housing prices.

High housing prices are a result of China's unbalanced regional development. The population of first-tier cities has swollen, placing thresholds on housing. We must balance the attractiveness of first-tier cities to ease this problem, although this is easier said than done.

No matter what measures are taken, it's important to freeze housing prices in first-tier cities. We should resort to market measures as much as possible, but if that doesn't work the government should directly intervene. It is the least painful remedy for all parties and creates conditions for further actions.

There is adequate housing supply in Beijing, with the rapid development of the city's line traffic system gradually integrating the outskirts with downtown. As long as the public adopts a rational purchasing attitude and there is minimal speculation, housing prices in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou will finally match residents' income levels.

Expectation for cooling the sizzling property market is based on the ability to narrow China's regional development gap. If not, China will continue seeing abnormal development of its property market.