CRI听力：Analysts: Price Shift in Chinese Real Estate Market is Unlikely

Insiders in China's real estate industry say that a huge price shift on the housing market is unlikely to occur within the near term as buyers and developers jostle to get the best prices.

Although a series of discounts are currently popular in the property market in China's western municipality of Chongqing, a city of 30 million, the contracts clinched were only half during a peak in the middle of last year.

Chen Deqiang, a real estate expert with a CHONGQING university, said he did not expect a price shift in the near future

"A price shift can be reflected in the following three aspects. First, it has to maintain a major trend. For instance, an abrupt decline after a persistent rise. Secondly it is a matter of long term. Some minor change in two or three months can not be considered a shift and, thirdly, a real shift would lead to a huge shake on the market, which is not obvious at this moment ."

He added that the recent fall in prices is the result of the country's macro-control policies.

A shift has occurred in the country's real estate market over the past year as investors and developers are turning to the country's second-tier cities for new opportunities.

While construction continues in the first-tier cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, other large cities in the vast interior region are also witnessing rapid development and construction.