Buyers waiting for housing prices to drop are most likely the cause of the recent decline in sales, analysts told the Global Times yesterday.

In the first half of August, 68.4 houses were sold each day, a 49.6 percent drop compared to the previous month, according to bjfdc.gov.cn, a government website that provides Beijing's real estate transaction data.

But the housing sales slump was not confined just to the capital. From August 10 to 16, only 285,000 square meters of newly-built houses were sold in Tianjian, down 19.7 percent from the previous year, according to the Investment and Consulting Department of Centaline China Real Estate's Tianjin division.

The sales volume of houses in Shanghai has also declined since July, Hui Jianqiang, an analyst from E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times yesterday. "Home prices have matched their highest level, reached in 2007, and lots of buyers are waiting to buy a unit," Hui explained.

"Buyers have restrained themselves this month. They are waiting for a drop in price," a staff member of Homelink Real Estate Agent in Beijing told the Global Times.

"Only about three weeks ago, buyers were still enthusiastic about houses," he added. "But now they can't afford the prices, which have reached their highest level since 2007."

There are rumors that the real estate companies will face some challenges in the remaining four months of 2009 since both sales volume and prices are expected to decline.

Credit problems may affect housing developers because “commercial banks will restrict their loaning in the following four months now that they have achieved most of their lending goals this year,” Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, a major real estate developer, told the China Times.

Hui said the market's future depended on whether some investors in the real estate market would withdraw capital out of the market.