Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on the development of China's property market. The story was written by Cao Li in Shanghai, Liu Jie in Beijing, Chen Hong in Shenzhen and Zhan Lisheng in Guangzhou.

Government measures to cool off the overheated property market have prompted prospective buyers across the country to postpone purchases, depressing prices in Shanghai and slowing down price increases elsewhere.

In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, house-hunters say they are holding off taking the plunge because they expect prices to continue to fall in the near future.
And it is this approach, already reflected in the drop in sales in nearly all the major cities, that will ultimately decide the true impact of government measures and the development of the property market.

Shanghai

In Shanghai, sales of new apartments in June dropped by half from a month earlier and prices in the first six months fell an average 6 per cent from the same period last year.

Property agents from Beijing to Shenzhen have been bemoaning the loss of business, and it's only a matter of time before sellers cut prices as their counterparts in Shanghai have, property agents say.

That's exactly what Yao Lan, a 28-year-old journalist in Shanghai, has been waiting for. She and her husband have been looking for a bigger apartment since the birth of their daughter earlier this year. Like many Shanghai households, both husband and wife have to work to support the family. Childcare, therefore, is entrusted to the baby's grandmother, who will have to move in, increasing the household to four.

"The one-bedroom apartment we have now is obviously too small for the four of us," Yao said. For the Yaos, looking for an apartment with an easy commute to the central business district in Puxi where they work has been a frustrating experience. They soon found that apartments that fit their requirements in size and location were way out of their budget. "If we had taken the plunge, the monthly mortgage repayments would have been extremely tight," Yao recalled. "We wouldn't have had any money left to spend on anything other than the essentials."

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