China's economic hub Shanghai introduced preferential taxation measures including unifying housing standards and cutting home transaction tax to actively support people's housing demand on Monday.

Taking effect from Dec 1, the former 2 percent transaction tax imposed on non-ordinary housing projects will be canceled and the standard of identifying ordinary or non-ordinary housing will be unified, said the notification published on Monday.

In addition, the value-added tax is exempt for all residential apartments as long as the properties are kept by the home sellers for two years or longer.

In line with the nationwide measures, a favorable one percent deed tax was extended to apartments sized at or below 140 square meters against the previous requirement of 90 sq m or below for both first homes and second homes, the notice added.

Jointly issued by the Shanghai Municipal Administrative Committee of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Housing Management, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Finance and the Shanghai Municipal Tax Service of the State Taxation Administration, the measures were in a joint response to the announcement that was published by Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Nov 13.