中国二手房交易降温

Besides new apartments, the previously-owned housing market is also feeling the heat. Ever since the introduction of the new cooling measures, housing agencies are finding it harder to ink deals. Our reporter Zhang Ni went to one Beijing neighborhood to take a look at the impact first-hand.

In downtown Beijing, housing agencies are trying their best to make everyone passing by their potential client. With the government's new purchase restrictions, sealing a deal is not easy. They say the prices for second-hand apartments are stable, while it costs more money to rent.

Other agencies in the neighborhood have the same view, with some only making one deal last month. The rise in rent is what keeps them ticking over. But the big picture is different.

The National Bureau of Statistics has just released a report on second-hand apartment prices in 70 Chinese cities during February. According to this report, Beijing is still one of those cities experiencing a price hike, with prices increasing by about 3% compared to the same time last year.

Since the regulations started in late February, the numbers don't completely reflect the whole situation. The report shows that the prices of second-hand properties in 4 cities has dropped, while those in 16 cities have been stable. But big cities like Beijing and Shanghai aren't included.

Experts say the most important thing is for the government to build more cheap properties to compete with commercial apartments, in order to push house prices down.