Beijing Approves Sale of RMB 100k Per Square Metre Homes

Beijing’s city government announced pre-sale approvals for two new — and record-breakingly expensive — real estate projects in China’s capital.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, a permit was issued on Sunday for a project in the city’s Chaoyang district to begin selling units with prices as high as RMB 100,537 (US$16,613) per square metre, with the cheapest units being priced at RMB 53,072 per square metre.

A second permit was issued the same day for a project with an average price of RMB 67,000 per square metre. The permits were the first issued this year by Beijing’s housing bureau, after the city decided in November last year that it would not allow sales of properties priced above RMB 40,000 yuan per square metre.

Beijing’s measures were put in place as the central government has be pressuring cities to clamp down on rapidly rising housing costs. Home prices in Guangzhou and Shenzhen rose by 20 percent in December according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, while Beijing saw rates rise at the slowest rate of any of the nation’s first-tier cities, with a still robust 16 percent increase.