Stabilizing the Housing Market Guo Guoqing: deputy to the 11th NPC and Director of the China Marketing Research Center at Renmin University of China The country is now faced with the ur-gent task of curbing surges in house prices in major cities that is choking consumption and widening the rich-poor gap. To achieve this, it will be necessary to clamp down on speculators hoarding empty houses and property developers sitting on unused land.