Economy

Boom continues for Beijing's second-hand home market in Q1

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-13 23:42

BEIJING - Beijing's real estate market continued to expand in the first three months of the year despite the government's intensive moves to rein in the sky-rocketing property prices.

The average second-hand home price hit 15,692 yuan (US$2,298) per square meter in March, a rise of 1,732 yuan from February, the city's statistics authority said Tuesday.

The average second-hand home price for the first quarter thus came to15,222 yuan per square meter, up 9 percent over the same period last year, said the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics (BMBS), citing a survey of the city's 15 major real estate agencies.

From the end of last year, the Chinese government has rolled out a series of measures, including raising down payments for buyers of second homes and increasing interest rates on mortgages, to stop real estate bubbles.

A total of 20,556 apartments were sold in the first three months in Beijing, up 15 percent from a year earlier, among which 13,268 apartments were sold in March, up 40 percent year on year, according to the BMBS.