The total area of commercial housing transactions in 30 cities dropped four percent month-on-month in July, with monthly transactions in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen experiencing a decline that month, the Shanghai Securities News reported Tuesday.

Shanghai had its first monthly transaction decline this year, with a total area of commercial housing transacted dipping 5.37 percent month-on-month to 1.94 million sq m in July, according to the Shanghai-based Uwin Real Estate Information Service Co.

Sales of forward delivery commercial housing in Beijing totaled 10,862 units (excluding 1,972 units of policy-favorite apartments), or 350 units daily -- 9.1 percent lower from the daily sales of 385 units in June, according to statistics released on the city's housing transaction management authority website.

During the same month, a total of 6,653 units of apartments were sold in Guangzhou in July, a decline of 36 percent compared with the 10,502 units transacted in June. And July transaction volume was almost half that of May, according to statistics released on g4c.laho.gov.cn, a website under the city's real estate transaction supervising agency.

Meanwhile, purchased areas of newly built commercial housing in Shenzhen fell to 548,300 sq m in July, a decline of 17.4 percent from June, according to statistics from the Shenzhen Bureau of Land Resources and Housing Management.

(China Daily August 4, 2009)