China will strengthen regulations on real estate agencies after they became a major source of customer complaints due to misleading information.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development is working with related departments on policies to regulate housing listings of agencies and strengthen management of brokers, Vice Minister Lu Kehua said on Friday.
The ministry also promised to improve credit information systems in the sector and boost supervision over real estate agency practices.
Fabricating housing listings and charging irregular fees are among the usual complaints filed by clients.
A survey done in 2014 showed that 43.8 percent of 30,000 people in Beijing said they had encountered "bad behavior" from real estate Beijing agents when renting apartments.
Last month Shanghai regulators fined six real estate agencies between 130,000 yuan (US$20,000) and 200,000 yuan for false advertising their real estate in Shanghai.
