BEIJING, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Several real estate brokerages in China, affected by government policies, are closing some of their outlets as home prices fall, official media said.
Prices of pre-owned homes have hit a record low, the China Daily reported Tuesday in an article headlined "Real estate meltdown fears."
In Shenzhen, a large city in Southern China's Guangdong Province north of Hong Kong, brokerage giant Centaline Property Agency has announced it will close 60 outlets and lay off 1,000 workers nationwide, the report said.
Century 21 Real Estate LLC closed 34 outlets across the country in the first two quarters of this year, the report said.
Such closures have spread to Beijing. Liu Jun, head of Geland Real Estate Co. Ltd, based in Beijing, was quoted as saying the company closed 50 of its outlets in February.
These actions stem from the government's policy to cool the red-hot real estate market. Skyrocketing housing prices are seen as a major source of China's high inflation currently running far higher than the government target of 4 percent for this year.
The tightening measures have included increases in mortgage rates and restrictions on the purchase of a second home purchases.
One industry expert told China Daily he expects about 3,000 outlets of real estate brokerages to close this year, affecting about 50,000 real estate brokers.
A Beijing property transaction Web site said sales of pre-owned homes in the city dropped to 7,262 units in October, a year-on-year decline of 48.7 percent. Another brokerage house said the price of a pre-owned home dropped 3.2 percent in October month-on-month to $3,627 a square meter (10.7 square feet).
Despite the latest changes, the government has said it policies will remain in force.
