On March 30, 2013, the Beijing Municipal government introduced new measures to cool off the overheated real estate market. The measures included limiting unmarried singles to owning no more than one home and imposing a 20 percent capital gain tax on those who own multiple homes.
Xinhua reported that, as of April 7, the statistics showed that the transaction volume for used homes was down 50 percent compared with the week prior to the measure being introduced. Experts speculated that the slowdown was because both buyers and sellers are delaying their decisions as the result of the new measures. It is expected that the used home market may loosen up in the next six months.
Source: Xinhua, April 7, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-04/07/c_115294819.htm