House trading has remained largely tepid in Beijing since the nation's capital promulgated a series of purchase limit policies on Feb. 16 to help cap the soaring home prices.

According to the municipal bureau of statistics, 4.52 million square meters of commercial houses were sold in the first five months of this year, a decline of 26 percent from the same period of last year. Of the total, 3.12 million square meters were residential houses, down 29.8 percent year-on-year.

Average price of newly-built ordinary housing stood at 14,127 yuan (2,140 U.S. dollars) per square meter, down 4.8 percent from that for the whole of last year.

However, more money went to real estate sector during the five-month period.

Between January and May, 91.56 billion yuan was invested in real estate development projects, up 4.1 percent year-on-year. The money accounted for 51.9 percent of the city's total fixed-assets investment over the five months.

Around 54.19 billion yuan was invested in commercial house projects, up 23.8 percent year-on-year.

The capital's new limits prohibit new home purchases by Beijing families who own two or more apartments and non-Beijing registered families who own at least one apartment.

Non-Beijing registered families are also banned from buying apartments if they have no residence permit or documents certifying that members of the family have been paying social security or income tax for five straight years.

The soaring housing prices have become a major source of public complaints in the country's major cities.

Beijing is determined to stabilize or lower new home prices this year.

It's considered the most ambitious housing price control target among those issued by more than 40 Chinese cities.

Industry insiders say Beijing is the first city that has targeted an actual price decline, which is unexpected.