BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Home prices in Beijing declined month on month in June as the tough tightening measures introduced in March took effect.
Prices of new homes fell 0.4 percent month on month in June, a second month-on-month decline since February, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, prices of second-hand homes declined 1.1 percent month on month in wake of a 0.9-percent fall in May, recording the first two-straight-month decline since October 2014.
In mid March, authorities in Beijing unveiled a spate of measures, including higher downpayments and mortgage rates, to cool down the red-hot property market. Prior to that, prices of flats in many residential quarters had doubled since 2015.
Sales fell sharply following the controls and prices of new homes stabilized and those of second-hand homes reversed from rising to declining, the agency said.
Prices of new homes will likely stabilize even with an expected rebound in sales in the second half of the year as authorities have pushed property developers to speed up development and sales, it said.
Prices of second-hand homes, however, will likely fall further as fewer buyers are entering the market, it said.
In the Jan.-June period, home sales fell 29.7 percent year on year to 2.7 million square meters.
