(ECNS) -- New and second-hand home sales in Beijing dropped nearly 40 percent in the first full week of April, the Mirror newspaper reported.
Data from 5i5j.com, one of the country's leading real estate brokers, recorded online registration of 1,931 deals for new homes from April 4 to April 10, a fall of 38.5 percent over the previous week.
Sales of second-hand homes fell by 37.3 percent in the period, dropping to 5,136 transactions.
The broker said second-hand home sales also fell in the week from Feb 29 to March 6. Both the number of second-hand homes on sale and newly added potential buyers decreased slightly in the past week.
Second-hand homes also saw a minor decline in average prices in early April, falling 1.7 percent to 39,660 yuan per square meter after rising steadily to 40,000 yuan in March.
Researchers at Lianjia, another real estate agency, said high residential real estate prices have forced some buyers to adopt a wait-and-see attitude and "become rational again."
Hu Jinghui, vice-president of 5i5j Real Estate Group, said the second-hand housing market may further cool in the capital city amid a growing supply of new homes and an earlier easing of demand.
