Beijing's home prices still growing, signs of slowing showing

Beijing has achieved initial success in the regulation of its property market. Speculation in the real estate sector has been effectively curbed and the growth of housing prices has started to cool, said Zhang Gong, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, on July 29.

Zhang said that Beijing's housing price index fell 0.1 percent in May compared with April, and remained at May's level in June. In addition, the city's second-hand housing price index dropped 1.6 percent in May from April and 0.9 percent from May to June.

Zhang added that since the soaring home prices have been somewhat curbed, the next step is to firmly adhere to the real estate control policies to stabilize market expectations.

Ten lots of land will go on sale in Beijing in August, with seven for residential use and three for commercial use. The area of the 10 lots totals nearly 1.4 million square meters, up nearly 91 percent from July, according to statistics from the Beijing Land Consolidation and Reserve Center.

Low-income housing has become real estate developers' favorite project as a result of the control polices, ensuring the satisfactory completion of low-income housing projects in Beijing this year.

The city's Vice Mayor Chen Gang said recently that 109,000 low-income homes have started construction citywide, accounting for 80 percent of this year's planned total, and 21,000, or 46 percent of the planned total, have completed construction. In addition, the floor space of low-income apartments started and completed this year is 4.4 times and 2.4 times that of 2009, respectively.

By People's Daily Online