In Beijing, sales in real estate have been slow since the start of the year. Transactions continue to shrink as developers break ground on fewer projects and buyers hold back on purchases.

And it's not just top-tier cities like Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen that are seeing a chilly start to the year. Second-tier cities are doing little better, despite developers launching vigorous promotions for their projects.

March is usually a time of active promotion and sales in the housing market. But the first week of the month has seen just 3 new projects, each with 400 units, hit the market. 21-hundred were snapped up, down 65 percent from figures from the first week in February.

An industry insider said, "It's still unclear what direction policies will take. So developers don't want to start any new projects."

While for pre-owned homes, sales fell last month for five major cities across China to close to record lows. Guangzhou and Shenzhen posted the biggest month-on-month declines of 70 percent. While for Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, drops were between 30 and 40 percent. Insiders say they cannot predict what will happen in the months ahead.

"The ongoing NPC and CPPCC sessions are laying out policies for house prices. So the future of the market is still not clear."

Meanwhile, second-tier cities are also seeing a lukewarm market after the spring festival. Developers are trying to pull in more buyers, by promoting new apartments.

Xu Yang, Manager, Huarun Cenral Park House Project, said, "What we are promoting are our best apartments in their second stage of development."

In Wuhan, 34 developers have put more than 10 thousand units on sale after the spring festival, the highest in recent years for the same period. But there's little interest so far from consumers who say they want to wait and see. Only 25-hundred apartments from 350 projects were sold, down 58 percent year on year.

In Qingdao, Shandong province, 29-hundred new houses were sold in February, down 50 percent year on year.