Adding to a growing chorus, a group of Chinese policy advisers has urged Beijing to pull back on its two-year property-tightening campaign.

According to a report in the state-run China Daily, the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference called on the government to relax curbs in the once red-hot housing market, part of a broader proposal on policy adjustments to prevent the world's second-largest economy from weakening further.

Mainly made up of non-Communist Party members, the CPPCC is the official advisory body to China's legislature, the National People's Congress. Advisory is the operative word: the CCPPC makes suggestions, but doesn't make policy.'Restrictions on purchases should be relaxed for high-end residential properties in first-tier cities,' the newspaper cited the proposal as saying.

The article mentioned other elements of the proposal, such as lower taxes for small businesses and further interest-rate cuts, but offered nothing further on the property market.

The proposal makes the debate around property curbs both more transparent and more confusing.

Firstly, the call for an easing came just as the top leadership in Beijing has appeared in recent days at pains to quench hopes it will reverse property curbs following signs of a pick-up in investment and sales in some cities.Anxious to jump-start slowing growth, Beijing has rolled out a series of mini-easing measures in the property market in recent months, mainly making it easier for people perceived as genuine owner-occupiers, rather than speculators, to purchase their first homes. The top leadership has also become notably more tolerant of various forms of easing by cash-hungry local governments.

As a result, average housing prices in China fell at a gentler pace in May for a second consecutive month, following a rebound in transactions in major cities.

Such signs of life returning to the property market have led to growing speculation that Beijing is ready to loosen its grip further. The government has taken pains to dispel such notions, reiterating the tightening stance through the Housing Ministry and issuing stern warnings via the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Secondly, while the exact agenda behind the proposal remains unclear, it came from a political platform where the presence of interest groups is heavy and easily felt. For one, the CPPCC has a high component of wealthy members. It includes successful people from all walks of life, ranging from school teachers to athletes, movie stars and award-winning janitors.

Property tycoons are also among them.

Thus, it's not surprising that the property easing measure cited in the China Daily article refers specifically to the high-end segment of the market.

Thirdly, it remains to be seen whether the release of the proposal necessarily marks a widening or escalation of the ongoing policy debate. Some economists think so, having seen various groups join in the calls for eased property restrictions.

'The debate will intensify as the economy slows,' said UBS economist Tao Wang.

Standard Chartered's Stephen Green agreed: 'It's a move up in the transparency of the debate that has been on-going for a while,' he said, though he expects little movement before a party congress in the fall that will mark the start of a leadership shuffle, 'The political commitment to the buying restriction rules at the central level is high.'

One curious thing that is worth noting is the fact that apart from the English-language China Daily, no other major Chinese state media appear to have noted the proposal.Was the proposal meant as a low-key gesture to draw more international attention, before making a further move to test domestic public opinion? It's not totally clear but it's likely.

This is because the average Chinese citizens are the ones who have suffered the most from the property bubble in the past decade and the public remains fiercely against any idea of ending the tightening campaign right now.The senior leadership appears to be well aware of the enormous political risks associated with this one reason Beijing has remained conspicuously silent.