(Yicai) Dec. 25 -- Beijing has relaxed the home purchase restrictions in the central urban areas of the capital for households not registered locally and families with multiple children, so as to help stabilize the city’s real estate market.

Non-locally registered households now need just two consecutive years of social insurance or individual income tax payments to qualify to buy homes inside Beijing’s Fifth Ring Road -- the expressway encircling the city center and some suburbs -- down from three previously, while the requirement for properties outside the ring road has been cut from two years to one.

The new policy also increases the number of homes that families with two or more children registered in Beijing can buy within the ring road to three from two, while those not registered in the city that meet the social security and individual income tax payment requirements can buy two homes within the ring.

The latest easing comes as home prices continue to slide in Beijing and follows on changes in August, when the authorities removed buying restrictions outside the Fifth Ring Road for qualified non-locally registered residents.

Resale home prices have fallen for eight consecutive months. The average price fell to CNY3.5 million from CNY3.8 million (USD497,970 from USD540,655) last month from June, Guo Yi, chief analyst at a real estate analytics and consulting firm Heshuo Institution, said to Yicai.

Pre-owned home sales reached 14,446 units last month, up 20 percent from October, but down 23 percent from a year earlier, data from the local housing commission showed. This month's figure stood at 14,362 units as of Dec. 20, also down year on year.

The supply and demand balance is key to whether prices can stabilize, with the number of pre-owned homes listed in Beijing down to about 157,000 from last year's high of 176,000, which is still high compared with the market's low point of about 100,000, according to Guo.

"Only when listings fall back to the 100,000 to 120,000 range can prices in Beijing's pre-owned home market truly stabilize, or even increase," she pointed out.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev