Home sales plummet, frosty year predicted

The housing market might be bogged down, but a tough local real estate policy that took effect last month has sparked chaotic competition among house buyers.

Beijing Homelink Real Estate Brokerage, the biggest property agency in the capital, is complaining that a policy issued on April 30 - which bans families from buying more than one additional home in the capital and non-locals from buying an extra home unless they have worked in Beijing for a year - is hurting their business.

The real estate company runs 600 outlets in Beijing and has acquired a market share of almost 30 percent of the total second-hand house market.