Beijing saw a major increase in housing sales late 2005, despite the fact that winter used to be a slack season and the housing price growth rate is gearing down in many Chinese cities, according to statistics from a government website.

A total of 20,838 units of houses were sold in December, 4 percent more than that in November and a considerable 25.3 percent growth from that in October, said the website, www.bjfdc.gov.cn.

Seventy-three real estate projects and 18,071 units of housing got permission from the municipal government for sale in December, up from 50 and 10,981 in November.

The booming sales were caused by macro-control policies in the real estate industry, said Li Wenjie, general manager of the North China Department of Centaline Property Agency.

He said many companies postponed their sales programs after the macro-control policies went into effect in April.

The Chinese government has introduced various measures to prevent overheating in the real estate industry, which has attracted speculative funds.

As a result, the average housing price growth rate in 70 mid- and large-cities geared down to 0.6 percent in the second half of last year, according to Chinese Minister of Construction Wang Guangtao.

Beijing's housing price growth rate decreased remarkably from a high of 29 percent in 2004 to about 20 percent in 2005, said Miao Yueru, vice director of the Municipal Construction Committee.

Miao ascribed the decrease to the central government's macroeconomic regulation policy.

According to Miao, Beijing is expected to have a tempered real estate climate and will not witness a sharp rise and fall in 2006 due to the ample unsold houses in the market.

Source: Xinhua