Home price in the central parts of China's capital has kept climbing to approach the psychologically-important mark of 20,000 yuan (US$2,930) per square meter, official figures showed.

Home price stood at 19,750 yuan per sq m on average for apartments within Beijing's fourth ring road by the end of last month, according to the municipal Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Areas within the fifth ring roads are generally considered the central city in Beijing.

Beijing's home price rose 2.8 percent year on year in October and 0.4 percent from September, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

Combined commercial housing projects investment in the city hiked by 50.8 percent year on year over the past ten months to 198.3 billion yuan in October.

Analysts held that home prices should not rise too sharply, otherwise it would add too much pressure to urban dwellers and hurt the long-term healthy development of the property industry.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2009)