CHINESE developers used to proudly describe their brisk autumn housing sales as "golden September and silver October."

But this year's autumn sales were all but satisfactory as a result of the government's tightening measures, which were implemented earlier this year to cool the property market.

Analysts said that developers will encounter increasingly severe capital shortages amid poor sales volumes and lower prices during the autumn.

Housing transactions in Beijing from October 1 to October 30 totaled 12,099 units, an annual plunge of around 40 percent, according to data from Beijing Real Estate Transaction Management's website. The data is published by the city's housing authority.

The Centaline property firm in Beijing projected that the capital's total housing sales in September and October will be around 27,000 units, down 46 percent from a year earlier.

Sales in other major cities have also fallen.

Last month, sales of new homes in Shanghai were nearly halved compared with a year ago, while sales in Shenzhen dived 65 percent on an annual basis, according to a report released by the China Index Academy, a property research center.

Hu Jinghui, a senior real estate expert with B.A. Consulting, told Xinhua that sales volumes have always changed sooner than prices, judging from history.

"The drop in sales volume is a process that must take place before there can be any substantial price cuts in cities with runaway housing prices," Hu said.