The week-long Chinese National Day holiday, which usually sees the annual peak time for real estate sales in the country, failed to witness a rebound in the market as the government’s recent price-cooling policies take effect.
Based on figures released by the Beijing Real Estate Trade Management Network, only 116 homes on average were sold in Beijing during the first three days of the holiday. The figure is well below the highest daily sales of 852 homes, which was recorded in the last four days of September.
The sales of second-hand homes were even slacker, with approximately 30 houses sold during the first three days of the holiday.
China Daily quoted some experts as saying that the newest move issued on September 30 aimed at tightening regulations on liquidity of developers and curbing property speculation would result in the “coldest” Golden Week for the real estate market.
To further dampen housing prices, the central government shelved bank loans for third-home acquisitions starting October 1 and intends to extend real estate taxes across the country. First-time homebuyers now need to pay a minimum down payment of 30 percent of the purchase price.
”Potential buyers prefer to wait, as they believe the property prices would fall as a result of the policies,” said Zhang Xin, a real estate saleswoman in Beijing.
In Shanghai, some property developers are offering a discount of about 100,000 yuan at the Holiday Housing Market, Autumn Home Exhibition – a “barometer” of its real estate market.
A poll that was carried out at the exhibition found that 87.5 percent of homebuyers think the market trend is unclear.