House prices nudge upward in September

Meanwhile, as a growing number of people take a wait-and-see attitude because of soaring property prices and the fact that a great deal of market demand has been met in the past few months, Hu expected property sales in the capital to continue to slide in October.

"I do want a small apartment in Beijing, but the current price is now beyond my reach," said Huang Ying, a 28-year-old company executive.

She took a fancy to a one-bedroom apartment along the southern Third Ring Road. However, as the unit price has increased nearly 30 percent over the past three months, she could no longer afford the down payment.

Some buyers, however, expect that there might be some policy fine-tuning in the real estate sector later this year.

"Since the price has jumped more than 30 percent this year, I would rather wait to see if the government will take more measures to curb price growth," said Zhang Lian, a retired teacher who plans to buy an apartment for her son.

However, most industry analysts and economists said the nation's real estate policies are very likely to remain unchanged for the remainder of the year.

"China's economic situation is still OK, and there is no need to relax rigorous property policies," said Wang Haifeng, director of international economics at the Institute for International Economic Research, a think tank under the National Development and Reform Commission.

"But a further slowdown in the economy will also make it difficult for the government to launch more tightening measures," Wang said.

China's GDP growth may fall to 7.7 percent this year due to lackluster exports and lower investment growth, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.

The forecast for the expansion of the world's second-largest economy is down from the 8.2 percent estimate it made in April.

huyuanyuan@chinadaily.com.cn