China’s property prices are falling, with potentially far-reaching effects world-wide. And should investors think twice for buying into Chinese firms? Hong Kong’s outgoing securities regulator thinks so. WSJ’s Peter Stein and Andrew LaVallee discuss.

BEIJING — New-home prices plummeted by more than 20 percent year-on-year in the Chinese capital in May, and analysts said other cities will follow the trend in the second half of this year.

In Beijing, the average price of a newly constructed unit dropped to 23,467 yuan (US$3,400) a square meter, a month-on-month decrease of 7.19 percent, and 21.06 percent lower than the same period last year, according to SouFun.com, the largest property website in China.

Prices fell partly because more developers offered discounts to counter the cooling effect of the government’s tightening property policies.

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