OFFICIAL statistics show that the average transaction price for new homes in Shenzhen has dropped for seven consecutive months, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Data from the city’s urban planning, land and resources commission showed that 1,977 new homes were traded in Shenzhen last month, up by 146 percent compared with March. The average transaction price of new homes was 54,619 yuan (US$7,931) per square meter, a month-on-month decline of 0.2 percent.

Wang Feng, director of the city’s real estate research center, said that a range of new property policies introduced by the city government in October last year have increased the supply of housing and cracked down on speculative buying and selling of apartments in Shenzhen.

According to Wang, following the decline in trading volume of new homes, the average price of new homes in Shenzhen has been dropping more sharply than in many major cities nationwide.

He said that in order to better implement property policies, the city government will have to provide more government-subsidized apartments, increase housing supply, curb speculation in the property market, strengthen housing price controls and maintain order in the real estate market. (Zhang Yang)