BEIJING - Land sales in Beijing plunged in the first two months of this year, the municipal bureau of land and resources said Tuesday.
This came due to seasonal factors and the toughest measure ever to restrict home purchases, analysts said.
The Beijing municipal government netted 13.24 billion yuan ($2 billion) from land sales during the January-February period, sharply down from 56.7 billion yuan in December last year alone, the bureau said in a statement.
The Chinese capital earned 163.7 billion yuan ($24.9 billion) from land sales last year, the highest among all 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland.
Of 11 plots of land sold for commercial development last month, only two plots were designated for housing development, it said.
"This is only a temporary phenomenon," said Zhang Yue, chief analyst of real estate agency Homelink. "Usually, the majority of land for housing development is put on sale in the second half."