SALES of commercial real estate and housing in Beijing declined 12.2 percent annually in 2011, a sign that government curbs have cooled the capital's once red-hot real estate market.

Property developers in Beijing sold 14.4 million square meters of commercial estate and housing last year, Yu Xiuqin, a spokeswoman of the Beijing municipal bureau of statistics, told a press briefing yesterday.

A total of 10.35 million square meters of commercial housing were sold in 2011, down 13.9 percent from 2010, Yu said.

Prices of new homes rose 1 percent annually in December, Yu said. She added that the rise was 0.3 percentage point lower than the previous month and 8.9 percentage points lower than the year before.

Prices of existing homes fell 2 percent year on year in December, an annual decline for the second month in a row, Yu said.

Beijing's real estate market may be under further pressure this year as the local government will continue its regulatory measures on the sector to cool house prices to reasonable levels.

Last February, Beijing banned local registered families buying a third apartment and non-local registered ones from buying a second apartment.