SHANGHAI, Aug. 24 -- ANY real estate developers in Shanghai found to have reserved apartments for speculation purposes will face the possibility of losing their license, the city's top housing supervisor warned today.

Developers that refuse to kick off sales of apartments once finished without any sound reasons will be considered speculators and will receive a bad mark on their credit records, the Shanghai Housing, Land and Resources Administrative Bureau said at a meeting this morning.

Those who deliberately list apartments at artificially high prices to hamper housing sales so that they can enjoy more profits in the future will also be targeted in the administration's year-long campaign against illegal practices in the booming real estate market, Xinmin Evening News reported.

The campaign, which began in June, will also keep a close eye on any unauthorized approval of real estate projects and abuses of power for personal gains in the supervision of housing projects, the administration added.

The administration said it has set up a real estate supervision center to monitor every housing project across the city "from its beginning to the end" to ensure the projects are free of corruption.

It also encouraged local residents to call 962-121 (Chinese language) to report any illegal practices by developers.

The administration started investigations on three local property developers on June 6, including Tomson Riviera, the most expensive apartment complex on the Chinese mainland, over fraudulent sales practices.

In March, eight central government departments, including the Ministry of Construction, began a joint crackdown on illegal practices in the property market after the Ministry of Land Resources said last year that more than 60 percent, and in some cities as high as 90 percent, of recent land acquisitions for construction in China were illegal.