The Beijing municipal government said that it won’t allow new residential projects to go on sale if prices are higher than those sold earlier, to prevent developers raising prices. In March, Mayor Cai Qi had vowed “no home price rise” this year from levels in 2016, asserting that the city must be firm in stamping out speculative investment. Since then, an unofficial price ceiling of CNY80,000 per square meter has been in place, and so far no new projects have been granted a presale permit for prices above CNY80,000 per sq m. A common sales tactic has been for a phased release of units within an apartment project, raising selling prices over time, but the new rules aim to prevent this. Under the price control system, Beijing’s new home price growth eased to 14.6% in May from 27% in January. Property sales measured in floor space declined 26.8% in the first five months from the year-earlier period, while new starts in the same period slumped 43.7%. Prices in the secondary home market, which accounts for more than 80% of the city’s transaction volume, also cooled sharply. Weekly sales have fallen below 2,000 units for six straight weeks, compared to its peak of 8,769 units in March, according to Centaline Property. To curb prices, the white paper of the Beijing municipal government also vowed to increase residential land supply, designate more plots for affordable home building, and build more public rental homes. In the first half, 46 plots were sold in Beijing with a total price of CNY100.6 billion, exceeding the CNY85.2 billion raised through the sale of 44 plots in the full year of 2016, the South China Morning Post reports.