Real estate prices are important to house buyers in terms of if they can afford them or not, while these prices are of concern to developers as well as they dictate how much money they will make on their development efforts. Therefore, the state of development of the housing market is summarized and reflected in real estate prices. Yesterday, relevant authorities of the Municipal Bureau of Real Estate revealed to reporters that with 2004 just past, the growth of Nanjing's real estate prices is already becoming more and more stable, and housing prices in the new year are not likely to see great increases; Nanjing's housing market has made its way onto a rapid, healthy, and mature development track. According to their timely survey of the sales prices of uncompleted new housing space, the growth of Nanjing housing prices has already slowed down, after experiencing a period of high speed growth from the end of 2002 to midway through 2004.

On the whole of last year, the average price of Nanjing's new residential housing was 4,115 RMB per square meter, an increase of 11% over the year before, compared to growth of 12.2% from the year before last. According to analysis of the situation of price changes by month over the year, the first 6 months of last year saw an increase of 8%, while the second 6 months only saw an increase of a little over 2%. This signifies that the growth trend of Nanjing's housing prices is becoming more and more stable.

Although overall the growth of housing prices is slowing down, but looking concretely at various administrative districts, the situation is different in each area. For example, the four districts with the highest per square meter prices for new housing are the Baixai District, Gulou District, Jianye District, and Xuanwu District in that order; however the four districts with the largest price growth are the Xixia District, Yuhuatai District, Pukou District, and Baixia District in that order. From this one can further see that the characteristics of every housing block on the market is becoming more obvious every day, and areas that have had high prices in the past will see a rate of price increases lower than other areas.

The frantic house buying seen in 2003 on the housing market is still fresh in the minds of many. Because that year the rate at which Nanjing was building new housing was far from reaching the rate of which sales were being made: there was only 5.98 million square meters of new housing approved to come onto the market, however the area sold in advance reached 7.39 million square meters. However, by 2004, Nanjing's housing market achieved and maintained a trend of high demand and adequate supply, and the situation with supply and demand eventually switched places; there were over 200 housing blocks that came onto the market, and there was an oversupply of housing compared to demand. According the statistics of the Municipal Department of Real Estate, last year, new housing in Nanjing saw growth exceeding 50% in terms of area of building and land construction, and area newly approved to be put onto the market. There was over 10 million square meters of housing that was newly approved to be put onto the market, with sales of over 8 million square meters. This indicates that Nanjing's housing market is currently developing in a better direction.

In terms of sales volume, According to Nanjing's current population of 4 million city residents, a sales volume of 8 million square meters is a per capital increase of 2 square meters of living space. Looking from the viewpoint of developers, they only have an acceptable amount of "left over" volume at the moment, and only in a market where supply is greater than demand can developers be more attentive to the quality of housing blocks and pay more attention to service.

So, when is the most suitable time for city residents to buy a house or apartment? Relative authorities of the department expressed that as to buying housing there are two situations, one is buying housing for one's own use, the other is to buy housing as an investment. For housing buyers who are buying for investment purposes, now is the time to be very careful when buying housing. Because the scope of increase of Nanjing's housing prices has slowed down, the scope of increase this year will definitely be lower than that of last year. If the scope of increase in housing prices is lower than 10%, add to this increasing inflation, the hike in interest rates for loans, and other considerations, and one will be hard pressed to see any returns from investment in real estate. As for housing buyers who are buying for housing to live in, if one has some capital on one's hand, and has the ability to buy housing, than the earlier one buys the better. This is because although the upward trend of housing prices has slowed down, the trend is still upwards, and those who wait longer and just observe the market will end up paying more in the end.