China's curbs on real estate speculation are long-term policies, as taming soaring home prices helps control inflation expectations and could ease social discontent over widening wealth disparity, the Securities Times reported on Thursday, citing a senior government researcher.

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Qin Hong, vice director of the policy research center of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, also suggested that property developers should shift towards equity financing as the government curbs lending to the industry, the newspaper said.

Restrictions on home purchases and the levying of property taxes in some cities have already changed people's expectations of future home price rises and curbed investment and speculative demand, Qin was cited by the article as saying.