Sales of new homes in Shanghai dropped 48 percent in the first seven months of 2010 from a year earlier, as China's efforts to cool the property market began to bite, state media said Monday.

By the end of July sales in terms of floor space totalled 9.11 million square metres (98.1 million square feet), the Shanghai Daily reported, citing the city's statistics bureau. It did not provide comparative figures for 2009.

Chinese authorities have issued a slew of measures in recent months as they seek to prevent the property market overheating and causing a bubble that could derail the country's economy.

The government has tightened restrictions nationwide on advance sales of new developments, introduced curbs on loans for third home purchases and raised minimum down-payments for second homes.

The property price index for July was 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier, down from a record rise of 12.8 percent in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said earlier this month.

Prices in Beijing remained flat month-on-month in July, while they dipped 0.6 percent in Shanghai and 0.4 percent in the southern city of Shenzhen, on the border with Hong Kong.

At the weekend, vice premier Li Keqiang urged local governments to implement the central government's policies to curb speculation in the real estate sector and increase the supply of affordable housing, the Xinhua news agency reported.

earlier related report

Blackstone signs first major China housing deal: report
Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 23, 2010 –

US private equity giant Blackstone Group has signed a deal to make its first major investment in China's booming housing market, a report said Monday.

The Financial Times reported that Blackstone and Great Eagle Holdings, one of Hong Kong's largest property developers, agreed to a deal involving the construction of luxury apartments in the coastal city of Dalian.

Blackstone would back the development of more than 1,000 new homes, the report said, without citing a source or the value of the deal.

Great Eagle has already said it would welcome a joint venture partner for the project, the paper said.

The plan also calls for construction of about 400 hotel rooms in Dalian, a trading and financial centre dubbed the "Hong Kong of northern China", the paper said.

The deal comes less than a week after Blackstone said it planned to double its India investments to as much as three billion US dollars over the next five years.

Earlier this year, China's housing minister said the country's soaring property prices would likely continue up in 2010, despite government moves to rein them in amid fears of a real estate bubble.

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