There was a big fall in transaction volume this month for new property projects in Beijing and some developers have even started to lower their prices or offer discounts.

During the first three weeks that ended on April 25, only 695 new commercial apartments were sold.

During April, construction on a total of 5,735 new homes began, according to statistics from Centaline Property Agency.

Though the number of new property projects reached 21, higher than the 18 from the same period last month, the sales rate was a mere 12.1 percent, which was much lower than the 37.8 percent seen in March.

Xie Lifeng, a salesman from the Denmark Township from Hong Kong-listed R&F Properties, said he had not seen any transactions of new homes since his project was launched last week.

"We are offering 40 garden houses this month, ranging in size from 95 sq m to 255 sq m. The location is good, the price is modest, but no one has completed a deal so far," Xie said.

"Fewer people are coming to view the project now, maybe because of the tough policies issued recently."

The average price of Xie's Daxing district project was 14,000 yuan per sq m, and he said the price had already been reduced, first to 17,000 yuan and later to 15,000 yuan per sq m, since March.

Fragrant Seasons, a project owned by KWG Property, a Hong Kong-listed real estate company, saw the highest sales rates among all of the 21 new property projects.

Zhang Yan, a saleswoman at Fragrant Seasons, said nearly 60 homes had been sold, out of the 88 on offer since April 3.

"We offer 10 sq m for free, which means if you buy a 137 sq m apartment, you actually get a home with almost 150 sq m. Besides, we are near Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park and every room, even the kitchen and washroom, has enough light," Zhang told METRO.

But she revealed some buyers had withdrawn from plans to purchase homes after the banks tightened credit loans in the middle of the month.

"Four out of 44 buyers who had bought a 137-sq-m apartment have pulled out of their contracts," Zhang said.

"This would have been their third house and after the banks stopped offering homes for such people, they had no choice but to quit."

Zhang said her company planned to release a new batch of apartments before the May 1 holiday and would likely be offering a further discount of 5 percent.

But while some projects were seeing a slowdown, others are likely to continue to see strong demand and rising prices.

Sunny Era, a high-end apartment project near Beijing's Shaoyaoju subway station, is reportedly about to begin selling homes at 45,000 yuan per sq m.

"On March 23, we sold 280 apartments in a mere four hours," said Fang Xiaoqing, one of the project's saleswomen.

"In May, another 200 apartments will come on the market. Many clients have questioned me about lowering the price. My answer is, no, we never reduce the price."