Property sales in 30 Chinese cities fell 4 percent in July as prices soared and supplies dwindled, Wednesday's China Daily reported citing analysts.
The floor space of apartments sold in July slipped 5.37 percent from June to 1.04 million square meters, the newspaper reported, citing figures from the UWIN property transaction system.
Statistics of the Beijing Real Estate Transaction website showed that sales of forward delivery housing in the city dipped to 10,862 units last month, compared to 12,840 units in June.
Property transactions in Guangzhou fell 36 percent over June. The sales figure is only half of that in May, said Guangzhou's official property website.
"The fall has been triggered by high property prices and shrinking supplies in some cities," Qin Xiaomei, head of research, Jones Lang LaSalle Beijing, told the newspaper.
"Property developers have slowed down the pace of new projects in the second half after robust sales in the first half," she said.
Property prices in China's 70 major cities went up 0.8 percent in June, the fourth month-on-month growth in a row this year, according to statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission.
Prices in Beijing edged up by 0.4 percentage point in June from May, and Shanghai up 1 percentage point, with prices skyrocketing to record highs in 2007 in some areas, fuelled by strong investment, purchase demand and higher land prices.
The high prices have made most of the prospective buyers wary of making fresh investments.
Grant Ji, director of Savills (Beijing), a UK-based real estate service provider, however, said the fall in transaction volume is still within a normal band. "July was an off-season for the housing market."
"With no big shift likely in the macroeconomic policy during the second half, property prices are unlikely see a big fall as the market is still awash with funds," said Ji.
Source: Xinhua
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