Beijing property prices 'to fall'

The average house price in Beijing will plummet by as much as 20 percent as buyers snap up cut-price homes, according to the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.

The average cost could even reach as low as 8,000 yuan ($1,170) per square meter in the coming months, it said in its Beijing Economic Development Report this week.

The stagnant housing market during the financial crisis and the influx of cheap price-limited condos are the main reasons for the drop, Tang Yong, assistant researcher and one of the authors of the report, said.