China central government’s property controls are still in a “critical period” and the country needs to resolutely curb speculative investment on this sector, Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated Friday, while making an inspection tour of affordable housing projects in the port city of Tianjin, southeast of Beijing.

Wen pointed out that the government's controls over skyrocketing housing prices have been in place for more than two years, and that the excessive price rises have been generally curbed, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

"But the controls over the real estate market are still in a critical period and we need to firmly curb any speculative demand in the housing market," he warned.

Wen also said effectively increasing the supply of homes to the market and smooth progress in the affordable housing projects will be more important to consolidate the previous achievements in stabilizing housing prices.

The premier said the country's affordable housing should not be evaluated solely on the number of buildings completed or in construction, but also on whether the homes are delivered to the market in a timely manner to solve people's living problems.

China had begun work on more than 21 million affordable homes from 2009 to 2011, with almost half the total already built.

Beijing vowed to start construction of more than 7 million low-income housing units this year as part of its plan to build 36 million such units between 2011 and 2015, Xinhua said.

Wen called on developers of affordable housing projects to prioritize the quality of these homes designed for the nation's middle and low-income population, while stressing that the low-income homes should be distributed and managed in a transparent and open way for fairness.

His comments come after Xinhua reported last month that China was studying further measuresto strengthen the government’s control of the property market, amid signs housing prices were bouncing back.

Home prices in 50 out of 70 major Chinese cities rose in July on a sequential basis, the largest number of cities in 14 months, which representing a doubling from 25 in June, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics last weekend.

The world's second-largest economy has implemented several measures aimed at curbing skyrocketing property prices since 2010, including restrictions on second-home purchases, higher down payments and the introduction of property taxes in certain areas.