Society

Property deals drop in May in top-tier cities

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-06-08 17:22

A 44 percent drop was seen in May compared with April in the total areas of property sold in over 30 major Chinese cities, according to figures from Century 21 China Real Estate, a US-invested Chinese property agent, the Economic Information Daily reported Tuesday.

Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen were the most severely affected cities, with declines in resale building deals of 58.8%, 69% and 24.1%, respectively, and the negotiated price scale expanded, Century 21 said.

The drop in price was due to the recent real estate control policies, said Qi Fan, a real estate analyst from Century 21.

On the prospects of the future housing market, Chen Guoqiang, a researcher of China Real Estate Society (CRES) said it would improve as long as the price gap narrows between house-buyers' expectations and real market price.

"Because of recent property policies that make buyers and even developers adopt a wait-and-see attitude, and as markets adjust to these policies, such drops will recover," Chen added.