Hot housing prices in Beijing expected to cool off
2/3/2006 17:48
The fast growth of housing prices in the Chinese capital city of Beijing,
which overtook the hottest real estate market Shanghai last year, is expected to
slow down gradually, today's China Daily said, quoting analysts.
Increasing
housing supply, more economically affordable real estate and the government's
macro-control policies will bring down the high residential property prices in
Beijing, said industry insiders.
According to statistics bureau of Beijing
and Shanghai, the average housing price in Beijing reached 6,725 yuan (US$830)
per square meter last year, a rise of 19.2 percent from the previous year, while
the housing price in Shanghai hit 6,698 yuan (US$827) per square meter, an
increase of 4.9 percent over 2004, with the growth slowing by 9.7 percentage
points.
Sources from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Beijing's
residential property price rose 8.4 percent year-on-year in January, the top
among China's major cities.
Experts believe that Beijing's surprising growth
and Shanghai's drop are attributed to the implementation of China's
macro-control policies and market supply structure.
Shanghai's property
developers were more prudential due to the government's strengthened
macro-economic control and experienced a slowdown in their operations, as
property development investment growth was 6.1 percent in 2005, down 24.3
percentage points from 2004.
Beijing's sharp price in real estate last year
was partly due to sluggish interim supply, according to an official of Beijing
Land Bureau, who asked to be anonymous.
"As housing production has a long
production period, the supply on the real estate market shows a strong inertia,
potential supply capacity accumulated since 2004 will successively be completed
this spring, therefore, the price growth is to slide down," the official
said.
Xinhua
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