New Year housing sales drop 60% in Beijing

A total of 570 houses were sold in Beijing during the three-day New Year holiday, a 60 percent drop compared with the same period last year, China News reports.

Statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development website show that of the total, 541 were newly built properties, a 57 percent decrease from last year. Some 29 houses were second-hand, a drop of 84 percent.

It is believed the restrictive policies on house purchases and loans in 2011 caused the lowest housing trade volume in Beijing in over the last ten years.

The market will keep cooling until the end of this year, due to the continuing policies, the paper said, quoting Zhang Dawei, an analyst with Centraline Property in Beijing.