Despite the central government's attempts to rein in the country's rapidly overheating property market, mainland housing prices are rising and will continue to do so as demand exceeds supply, experts say.
Riding on an economy that expanded 11.4per cent last year, housing prices nationwide rose 10.2per cent in the fourth quarter over the same period a year earlier, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
In January, the surge continued as prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities jumped 11.3per cent compared with the same month last year, the economic planning body said. Of those markets, Beijing was one of the hottest with a 17.2per cent gain.
Anna Kalifa, Jones Lang LaSalle Beijing's research head, says the capital's property prices will continue to grow, but probably at a slower pace than last year. While many gains of more than 20per cent were recorded in the city's luxury property sector last year, she says an increase of 14 to 17per cent is an accurate estimate for this year.
'With the Olympics coming to Beijing, it is important to realise this in itself is not a driver [of property prices]. The biggest driver is that this is the capital,' she says, adding that the city only has about 40,000 luxury units. About 4,000 new luxury units are expected to come onto the market this year.
Big is the trend in the capital. Beijing Yintai Property has four units in its Park Hyatt Penthouse project in the central business district (CBD). The unfinished units are 550 or 869square metres. The smaller units cost 108,000yuan (HK$120,479) a square metre and the biggest are 128,000yuan a square metre.