Several areas in North China's Hebei Province are curbing home sales in an effort to rein in runaway prices, news portal thepaper.cn reported Wednesday.

These areas, which are adjacent to Beijing, have in recent years become a choice for homebuyers who can't afford the capital's high home prices.

Authorities in Xianghe county, Hebei Province, suspended transactions of secondhand housing effective Wednesday, thepaper.cn reported, citing comments from a source familiar with the matter.

On April 10, Yanjiao township, which is some 20 kilometers from Beijing's Central Business District, suspended its online system for the transactions of secondhand homes.

Nearby Dachang county took the same move, thepaper.cn reported.

The paper.cn reported on Wednesday that new home prices in Yanjiao, Dachang and Xianghe have reached 20,000 yuan ($3,094) per square meter, 14,000 yuan per square meter, and 9,000 yuan per square meter, respectively.

Beijing remains one of the few Chinese cities that maintains restrictions on home purchases, to keep home prices from running wild.

The residential property sector in Beijing saw a price rise in the first quarter, with the average price increasing 8.3 percent from the previous quarter and 20.24 percent from a year earlier to 30,585 yuan per square meter, data released by commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield showed on Tuesday.