2011-01-13 15:01

High-end housing projects are continuing to be hot sellers in Beijing, despite the government's attempts to curb rising home prices, real estate researchers are saying.

And a survey released by property consultancy company DTZ shows that average rents for Beijing's high-end residential properties climbed for the third consecutive quarter, reaching 146.4 yuan per square meter per month, a 5.2 percent increase quarter-on-quarter.

Among all the high-end homes, "serviced apartments", which are known for their convenience, topped the list for rent increases.

Their average rent has gone up by 9.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and now stands at 201.3 yuan per sq m per month.

Meanwhile, overall availability fell by 1.7 percentage points to 20.8 percent.

Richard Wang, head of the North China consulting department at DTZ, said the resurgence from the global financial meltdown meant the return of many foreign enterprises and that had contributed to the demand for serviced apartments.

He added that the government's attempts to cool the housing market had had little impact on high-end homes.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, the average price of luxury residential property hit 45,928 yuan per square meter, up 6.1 percent on the third quarter.

Luxury property prices on East Chang'an Avenue, which reached an average price of 61,000 yuan per sq m, were the most expensive in the capital, followed by the 57,000 yuan per sq m space in Lufthansa and the 56,000-yuan selling price in the Central Business District, according to DTZ's figures.

Wang said the high-end residential property market is expected to hold steady during the following months and the scarcity of such projects will likely lead to further price growth.

In addition to luxury residential property, the Grade A office market is also maintaining an upward trend.

The survey showed that about 175,889 sq m of floor space was injected into the office space market during the fourth quarter of 2010.

New stock added throughout 2010 reached 440,904 sq m, taking the total inventory of Grade A office space to 6.6 million.

In the investment market, the average price grew by 6.54 percent during the past quarter, to 37,008 yuan per sq m.

Ada Y B Nip, head of business space retailing at DTZ's North China office, said commercial real estate investment demands higher professional skills than is needed to invest in residential projects.

"Investment in business space requires more professional knowledge and it will take a long time for personal investors to transfer their money from residential property to other investments," she explained.

"So the possibility of bubbles (in commercial real estate investment) may be limited."