Beijing sees remarkable drop in home transactions in 2017

BEIJING - Beijing's commercial housing transactions significantly shrank in 2017 due to effective controls, according to a white paper issued Tuesday.

Last year, 43,000 new commercial homes were sold in the national capital, down 26.5 percent year-on-year, and 134,000 second-hand homes were sold, a drop of 49.8 percent year-on-year, according to the report by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

In December, the average transaction price of new homes in Beijing was 37,800 yuan ($5,885) per square meter, down 0.9 percent compared with the same period in 2016, marking the 15th consecutive month without growth, the report said.

In addition, growth in individual home mortgages slowed, with an increase of 16.5 percent in total unpaid loans year-on-year recorded by the end of 2017, down 25.2 percentage points the end of 2016.

Last year, the municipal government rolled out more than 20 measures to control demand, increase supply and enhance supervision in the market.

The government has been promoting renting, and continued to offer affordable homes both for renting and purchasing.