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China has launched several curbs to restrict home purchases in big cities since April. The State Council, or Cabinet, said earlier this month the curbs imposed in big cities now would extend to second- and third-tier cities.

1) Number of unsold new homes on rise

Tighter regulation of the real estate market is beginning to show modest results. Home transaction volumes have fallen, and housing prices have dipped slightly. Meanwhile, new data shows large numbers of unsold homes accumulating in various cities around the country. As of July 20, Beijing inventory of new homes in Beijing reached 107,000, the highest level this year, while Shanghai had nearly 54,000 unsold flats, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said. The stock-to-sales ratio in Beijing hit 14.8 in July, meaning it will take almost 15 months to sell all the new houses on the market given the sales rate in the first half of the year. Zhong Dawei, director of market research at Zhongyuan Real Estate, said the ratio was the highest Beijing has seen in three years. The massive inventories and sluggish sales reflected in the data indicate serious overstock, he said. Liu Chunyan, director of real estate consultancy World Union Properties, said ballooning supply caused by purchase restrictions will put increasing downward pressure on housing prices towards the end of this near and in the first half of 2012.