The comments were made before China's State Council, or cabinet, announced it would "gradually reform the real estate tax" -- the first official sign of a possible annual levy on residential housing aimed at reining in soaring prices.

"The housing market problem in China is actually much, much more fundamental, much bigger than the housing market problem in the US and UK before your financial crisis," said Li Daokui, a member of the bank's monetary policy committee.

"It is more than (just) a bubble problem," he told the Financial Times in an interview published Tuesday.

The property market in the United States collapsed as too many people were unable to repay their high-risk, or sub-prime mortgages, leading to a credit crunch in which thousands lost their homes and lending dried up.

China has recently introduced a range of measures to prevent the growth of asset bubbles and soaring property prices.

Authorities have tightened restrictions on advance sales of new property developments, introduced new curbs on loans for third home purchases, and raised minimum downpayments for second homes.

The latest tax plan was expected to discourage property speculation and help replenish the coffers of local governments, which have been severely depleted by an investment binge over the past year, Chinese media reports have said.

A property tax is likely to be imposed on a trial basis in Beijing, Shanghai, the southwestern municipality of Chongqing and the southern city of Shenzhen by end-June, state media said previously.

China currently has no such levy on residential property but does impose a 1.2 percent tax on 70-90 percent of the value of commercial real estate.

The State Council also approved a plan to encourage the withdrawal of state capital in "general competitive sectors", in an apparent effort to reduce the amount of government-backed investment in the red-hot property market.

Li said recent moves by Beijing to rein in the property market needed to be part of a long-term push to bring high housing prices under control, the Financial Times reported.

He warned the high cost of housing could hamper future growth by slowing urbanisation. Rising prices were also a potential political flashpoint, especially among younger people who felt locked out of having their own home.

"When prices go up, many people, especially young people, become very anxious," he said. "It is a social problem."

He added that there were still signs that the economy was overheating and recommended modest increases in deposit interest rates and the value of the Chinese currency, the report said.

Official data showed real estate prices in 70 cities jumped 12.8 percent in April, the fastest year-on-year rise for a single month in five years.

At the Beijing Real Estate Expo in April, the average price of a new apartment in the Chinese capital was 21,164 yuan (3,100 dollars) per square metre, double that of last year, state media said.

That means a 90-square-metre (970 square feet) apartment in Beijing would cost 1.9 million yuan, compared with the average per capita income of 17,175 yuan in 2009.

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