China’s private housing market is springing back to life as more sales offices reopened across the country following a nationwide shutdown, saving home builders from a deeper financial slump this year, reported the South China Morning Post .
Transactions in at least eight large cities – Shenzhen, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Huaian, Yangzhou, Jiaxing, Shantou – indicated buyers have returned in recent weeks, with volume surpassing the average levels in the final quarter of 2019, according to China Real Estate Information Corporation (CRIC).
“Prices of some new projects were capped [by the government], lower than the market price, so some projects are popular” with the buyers, said Yang Hongxu, deputy head of E-house China Research and Development Institute. “Restrictions on housing and land prices also created some room for arbitrage, so people are rushing to buy houses and property developers scramble to buy land.”
Home sales in 30 large and medium-sized cities, a bellwether for the nationwide trend, reached 8.6 million sq m (92.6 million sq ft) this month, more than treble the 2.33 million sq m recorded in February, according to Wind Information.