A labourer works in a construction site at a new residential area in Turpan
A labourer works in a construction site at a new residential area in Turpan, Xinjiang province October 31, 2013.
In defying four years of official cooling efforts, China's soaring house prices reveal an uncomfortable truth: government is one of the biggest obstacles to the success of taming the market. State income is so entwined in the need for rising land prices that policy efforts to try to curb the house market create an inherent conflict of interest. With one hand on a patchwork of controls aimed at taming record house prices, governments with their other hand are at the same time selling land to developers at rising prices. Picture take on October 31, 2013. To match story CHINA-PROPERTY/ REUTERS/Carlos Barria (CHINA - Tags: REAL ESTATE BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION)