Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, announced on Wednesday that it would restrict home purchases of single adult residents.

The measure was an upgrade of a previous one, which was rolled out only 10 days ago to ban families of registered residents that already own two or more houses in the main districts from buying new homes.

In order to close the loophole that some couples resorted to divorce to dodge the restriction, the new rule said that single adult residents, unmarried or divorced, will not be allowed to buy a second home in the districts, according to a statement issued by the municipal government.

In addition, the statement stipulated that families that purchased their first home without a mortgage and those that have mortgage records but no homes should meet a minimum down payment of 50 percent for a second home. Families that are still paying back the loan of their first home should afford a down payment of no less than 80 percent for the second.

The price of new houses in Nanjing increased by 4.1 percent from July to August, and the August price recorded 38.8 percent year-on-year growth, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Nanjing is among more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin, that have restricted buyer qualifications, limited purchase amounts or raised down payments to rein in soaring housing prices since late September.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Monday said that 45 property developers or agents were being investigated for stoking speculation through false advertisements, rumors and breaches of pre-sale rules. Endi

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