Housing market remains cold

As the Chinese lunar new year holiday drew to an end, the cooling housing market finished a tough week. Transactions in some of the country's largest cities were at a surprising zero, due to unfavorable prices and hesitant buyers.

In Beijing, housing transactions during the Spring Festival holiday shrank 70 percent from the first week of February. Some small complexes are offering discounts but their scale looks unlikely to weigh down the entire market price level, as developers are not short of cash, after the 2009 bank lending spree.

During the holiday, the southern city of Guangzhou only sold 22 apartments, less than half from the same period last year. Analysts say the reasons are obvious.

Han Shitong, Property Analyst, Guangzhou, said, "Only 22 units of property were sold during the Spring Festival. The market has sent an obvious signal that housing prices are very high. Policy pressures are accumulating and further growth prospects are getting dim for the whole year. "