Property transactions in Beijing during the National Day Holiday touched a three-year low for the period, even as buyers from other provinces considered it a good opportunity to purchase homes in the capital.

According to statistics from the Beijing Municipality's property transaction management website, sales of future delivery residential apartments stood at 114 units on October 6, a drop of 74 percent compared with the same period last year. Even in 2008, when the property market was sluggish, transactions during the first six days of the National Day holiday period were 1411 units, compared with 472 units this year.

"Such a low transaction volume was largely due to the fast rising prices of property in the past few months," said Eric Chan, general manager of Synergis Asset Management Services Limited.

Quite a number of residential projects in Beijing have seen their prices go up by more than 50 percent since April.

"Sale of homes during this National Holiday is, in fact, a critical measure to judge people's expectations. A rosy holiday will indicate optimistic sales in the fourth quarter, while a lean one may signal pessimism," Chan added.

Despite the drop in sales of common residential projects, transactions of high-end residential apartments remained brisk. Statistics from E-house China showed that the average monthly sales of apartments with an average price higher than 30,000 yuan per sq m exceeded 20 billion in the past three months in Beijing. And the monthly sales of the top three best sellers all exceeded 200 million yuan.

The wait-and-see attitude of local residents, however, did not dent the enthusiasm of buyers from other provinces.

Statistics from Midland Realty (Beijing), a real estate brokerage firm, showed that more than 500 families outside Beijing and 100 Hong Kong families registered at the company seeking properties in Beijing during the National Day Holiday.

"Quite a number of buyers are investors from Shanxi and Hebei provinces, and projects located close to 'land kings' particularly interested them," said Bai Jiyuan, general manager of Midland Realty.

According to a salesperson at Xanadu, a property project next to the CCTV's new headquarters, more than 40 percent of buyers were from other provinces, and overseas residents accounted for around 30 percent.

"During the National Day Holiday, we saw more buyer interest from other provinces, especially those from North China. Most of them were interested in apartments with price tags hovering around 6 million yuan," a salesman surnamed Liu said. The price of a Xanadu apartment now ranges between 48,000 and 65,000 yuan per sq m.

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