Beijing's commercial property sales down 49 pct

Commercial property sales in Beijing totaled 5.65 million square meters in the first nine months of this year, down 49.2 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data released by the local statistics authority on Monday.

Residential housing sales also slowed during the period. Sales, totaling 3.7 million square meters, fell by 42.9 percent year-on-year, said the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

The data show that the construction area of commercial property in Beijing was about 115 million square meters during the period, down 8 percent year-on-year.

In mid March, authorities in Beijing infused a spate of measures, including higher down payments and mortgage rates, to cool down the property market. Prior to that, prices of apartments in many residential areas had doubled since 2015.

Sales fell sharply following the controls, and price of new homes stabilized. Price of second-hand homes that were rising earlier also started to decline.

(CGTN)