The municipal government of Beijing further tightened restrictions on purchasing apartments in the city on Monday by extending its controls to include transactions covering residential bungalows, with the move coming as part of the city's efforts to rein in surging housing prices.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development limited qualified buyers of bungalows to registered local households that currently own no more than a single apartment in the city, according to a statement posted on its website.

Unregistered residents in the city who don't already own an apartment and have paid taxes to the city for five years or more could also be eligible to purchase a bungalow, the statement said.

Bungalow transactions that involve buyers who don't meet the aforementioned qualifications will be temporarily halted, it added.    

The restrictions on Monday are the latest measures taken by the city to crack down on speculative forces in the market that have pushed up urban property prices.

Wary of the looming risk of a housing bubble, Chinese officials from all levels of government have recently introduced a barrage of tightening measures to fend off risks in the country's property sector.