Affected by the mood of the slowing economy and lower incomes, housing prices have shown a fall, though Beijing's real estate market has not yet hit the bottom, said an industry expert to China Securities Journal on Wednesday.

Beijing home prices, both for newly-constructed units and second-hand ones, declined in the third quarter. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing's housing sales price index dropped 0.2 percent month-on-month in October. The index declined 0.1 percent month on month for newly-constructed housing, and was down 0.4 percent for second-hand housing.

"Although housing prices in statistics differ with real prices in certain regions, we saw clear price drops compared with the previous price peaks", said Wu Dilai, a real estate consultant.

In order to withdraw capital as soon as possible, many property developers offered discounts on new projects. Over 100 housing projects are on sale in Beijing now, according to the newspaper.

Impacted by declining prices of newly-constructed housing, the second-hand housing market turned into a buyer's market as prices fell, said Meng Qi, an analyst with Century 21 Real Estate LLC.

But in contrast to decreasing housing sales, the housing stockpile in Beijing grew.

According to statistics from Beijing Real Estate Trade Management website, a website sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Construction Commission, the city's salable housing amounted to 110,239 units as of yesterday, with an area of 3.49 million square meters, or 40,554 units more than early this year.

As the government provided more land to developers last year, Beijing's housing stockpile surged this year, said Hu Jinghui with 5i5j, a real estate brokerage company.. Further more, the sluggish housing market also contributed to the surge, and added pressure to the fall in housing prices.

Though housing sales fell to a comparatively low level, Beijing housing prices are still on the high side and will maintain a downtrend in the short term, said Yu Xiuqin, spokesman with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

(China Daily November 19, 2008)