Economy

Rental rise in Beijing as potential buyers shelve plans: report

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-15 10:44
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BEIJING: Rental housing costs in Beijing are rising, even as government measures announced in April dampen transaction volume, partly due to prospective home buyers suspending purchase plans and continuing to rent, Monday's Beijing Evening News reported.

The average rent in Beijing jumped 20.3 percent year on year to 3,000 yuan ($439) per month in the first two weeks of June, the newspaper said, citing a survey by Homelink, a domestic real estate agent.

That is 2.5 percent up compared with the figure two weeks before the announcement of the government measures.

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The rent of a two-bedroom apartment rose most notably during the first two weeks of June, up 400 yuan compared with the previous year, the newspaper said.

"Many prospective home buyers have shelved their purchase plans because they believe home prices have yet to bottom," Qi Fan, an analyst with Century21 China, a domestic real estate agency, was quoted as saying in the report.

China announced a string of tightening measures in mid-April, including the raising of down-payments and mortgage interest rates, to cool the booming property market.

Home prices in 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities rose by 12.4 percent year on year in May, a growth rate 0.4 percentage points lower than that in April.