BEIJING -- Beijing plans to allocate 1,200 hectares of land for the building of residential houses this year, and more will be added to further develop the city's house rental market.

The remarks were made by acting mayor Chen Jining while delivering the government work report at the opening of the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress Wednesday.

Beijing in 2018 will promote the construction of 2.9 million square meters of joint ownership houses and 6 million square meters of commercial houses, of which the construction lands have already been allocated.

Chen said the city would develop the rental market, especially the market for long-term renting, and further promote construction of rental houses on collectively-owned rural land.

The city has seen no month-on-month growth in the price of new commercial houses for 15 consecutive months, and the price index for second-handed homes has been dropping for eight consecutive months.

The city has introduced a spate of measures including higher down payments, higher mortgage rates and tougher purchase restrictions as well as joint property rights to cool the housing market.

Beijing supplied a total of 721 hectares of construction land for residential housing last year. In April 2017, the city announced plans to supply 6,000 hectares of land by 2021 in a bid to meet the market demand of residential houses.