BEIJING (Reuters) -- Chinese authorities have issued new rules making it harder for foreigners to invest in the property sector in another attempt to cool the nation’s heated real estate market.

In a statement dated May 23, but published on Monday, China’s foreign exchange regulator and the Commerce Ministry said foreigners needed to obtain land use rights before developing property projects, putting a major hurdle in the way of would-be developers.

Existing foreign-funded firms needed to seek additional approvals from the authorities to launch new development schemes, said the statement posted on the website of State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The two government bodies also ordered local governments to strengthen their supervision of foreign investment into Chinese real estate and to ensure that outsiders did not gain equity control of local property firms without announcing that they were transforming themselves into foreign-owned firms.

The new regulations come nearly one year after Beijing issued controversial rules restricting foreign purchases of property amid fears that surging investment into real estate is pushing prices to unreasonably high levels in many cities.

Monday’s notice said that China’s efforts to discourage foreign investment had achieved initial success, but there were “some problems” associated with certain areas.

It urged provinces to step up supervision of foreign-funded property developers and to place strict controls on overseas players so that they did not invest in luxury properties.

Beijing has blamed foreigners for contributing to runaway property prices by buying real estate as a way of profiting from steady appreciation in the yuan.

The cost of new housing in China’s 70 big cities rose 5.3 percent in April from a year earlier. Prices in the capital Beijing rose 10.7 percent on the year while those in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen increased by an annual 11.3 percent.