Beijing's housing turnover hits 10-week low

Beijing's housing turnover last week dropped nearly 20 percent compared with the previous week mainly due to the rising prices of the properties for sale, experts said.

September and October are the traditional peak season for China's housing market, but Beijing's first week's performance failed to meet expectations and hit a 10-week low.

Only 2,275 contracts were signed for new homes in Beijing last week, down 19.6 percent from the previous week. Second-hand home sales also fell 19 percent, with 2,750 units sold.

Property developers no longer pursue high trading volumes at the expense of low prices, and have started to reduce discounts on popular housing projects, according to Beijing Times.

"As housing prices in many cities stabilize, the number of highly cost-effective units decreases and potential buyers begin to hesitate," said Zhang Dawei, director of Beijing Centaline Property's market research department. "These are the main contributors to the decline."

The number of new projects on sale in the first week of September also fell to four from six in the previous week. But 874 units are available for sale in the four projects, a slight increase from the previous week, according to data from Yahao Real Estate & Consulting Solution Agency.

"Housing companies did not reserve many lots to develop amid the housing market slowdown, which started last year," Yahao Deputy General Manager Ren Qixin told Beijing Times. "So they had to make adjustments to the sales cycle to deal with the foreseeable reduction in housing projects."

Ren suggested that another reason for the lack of new projects in the peak season might be low sales targets. Under tight housing control policies, many companies have low expectations for sales performance. Many have nearly completed their annual goals.