(ECNS) -- After restrictive measures were introduced to rein in home prices, Beijing's online registration of newly listed housing decreased by 45 percent in the first half of October from a year earlier, according to the latest data.
Online registration is part of the home purchasing process, with the volume roughly equal to transactions. From Oct. 1 to 16, some 1,579 new homes completed online registration in Beijing, down 45 percent year-on-year and 42 percent lower than the same period in September.
Online registration of new housing across 54 major cities decreased slightly to 130,944 units in the first half of October from 137,483 a month earlier, which brought an end to uninterrupted growth.
From September 30, a total of 22 cities, including both first and second-tier, rolled out restrictive measures ranging from higher down payments to home purchase restrictions to curb speculative investment.
Due to restrictive measures, weekly transactions in new homes across second-tier cities fell below 40,000 for two consecutive weeks, the first such decline since Spring Festival, showing a significant cooling of the housing market.
Last week, new housing transactions in second-tier cities fell by half compared with the week before the seven-day National Day holiday.
But there appears to have been a small rise in sales in some third-tier cities as a result of outflow in investment from hot markets.
