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Tongzhou housing prices plump 25%

By Zhao Tingting (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-28 11:31

The average price of second-hand houses in Beijing's Tongzhou district has dropped from 21,500 to 18,500 yuan per square meter, a decrease of 13.4 percent since the government issued stricter rules to curb speculation, the Beijing Times reported Wednesday.

Prices of some projects even plunged 25 percent, the report said.

Beijing Centaline Property predicted that housing prices in Tongzhou district will continue the downward trend and fall below 16,500 yuan per square meter by May.

On April 15, the central government decided to raise the required down payment for a family purchasing a second house from the existing 40 percent to 50 percent, as the latest measure to curb soaring property prices and prevent growing financial risks.　

According to the State Council's decision, the down payment for a family's first home with an area larger than 90 square meters must be at least 30 percent of the total price. For the second apartment, it must be at least 50 percent, with the mortgage rate 1.1 times the benchmark interest rate. Moreover, a much higher down payment and mortgage rate will be adopted for the third home and beyond.

Property prices in 70 of China's large and medium-sized cities rose 11.7 percent on a yearly basis in March, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows. It was the biggest year-on-year increase for a single month after the NBS expanded its coverage to 70 cities in July 2005.