By the year's end, the average price for a second-hand condo in Beijing will be over 9,000 yuan per square meter and the selling number will have risen to more than 85,000 units, up at least 10 percent, according to estimates from local real estate agents.

Fu Yan, an agent with Golden Keys, said that the soaring CPI and rising new-home prices were the main trigger for the price increase. More investors along with a sense of panic that the real estate boom will not stop soon has also helped to drive up prices.

He added that the people who really needed the apartments as residences had lower purchasing power and preferred not to buy amidst the real estate boom but investors with strong purchasing power did just the opposite.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.morningpost.com.cn/article.asp?articleid=142014)

(China.org.cn December 19, 2007)