Fewer houses sold in Beijing upon strict purchase limits

14:30, April 03, 2011      

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House trading has remained largely lukewarm in Beijing since the nation's capital promulgated a series of purchase limit policies on Feb.16 to help cap the soaring home prices.

Latest statistics from the city's real estate trading management network show that in the first quarter of this year, more than 20,700 new homes changed hands, a decrease of nearly 40 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.

The transaction volume was the lowest for first quarters over the past three years.

According to Beijing Home-Like House, only 5,500 new homes, or some 25 percent of the new home purchases in the first quarter, were traded from Feb. 17 to March 31.

In March alone, nearly 5,000 homes under construction were sold, down 44 percent from the same month of last year.

Last month also saw 11,102 second-hand apartments traded, down 50 percent year on year, according to 21 Century Real Estate. The year-on-year decline in second-hand home purchases was the biggest in Tongzhou District, up to 80 percent.

Lin Lei, who is in charge of marketing with the 21 Century Real Estate, said that currently home prices remained largely unchanged, however, if restriction policies were carried out strictly, home prices in Beijing would likely to go down more or less at the end of the second quarter.The capital's new limits prohibit new home purchases by Beijing families who own two or more apartments and non-Beijing registered families who own at least one apartment.

Non-Beijing registered families are also banned from buying apartments if they have no residence permit or documents certifying that members of the family have been paying social security or income tax for five straight years.

The soaring housing prices have become a major source of public complaints in the country's major cities.

Beijing is determined to stabilize or lower new home prices this year.

It's considered the most ambitious housing price control target among those issued by more than 40 Chinese cities.

Industry insiders say Beijing is the first city that has targeted an actual price decline, which is unexpected.

Source: Xinhua



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