Real estate 'lukewarm' as home price fall slows

The gradual rebound of Chinese real estate appears to be showing some semblance of stability, according to new figures by Colliers International.

On a national level, Colliers says, the ‘year-on-year decline in average home price in 70 middle-large cities narrowed in April compared to March, while on a month-to-month basis, the average price edged up for the second month in a row. This may indicate bottoming out of the overall residential price.’

At the same time, ‘overall sales volume of the top four domestic developers, Vanke, Gemdale, Poly and China Overseas, saw a surge in April, suggesting that the uptrend in Q1 continued into April.’

BizChina said with investor sentiment remaining ‘lukewarm’ new residential construction across China dropped by 15.6% year on year in April. Shanghai registered a 28.8% fall.

Colliers Interational said land acquisition during the first four months of 2009 fell markedly compared to 2008, ‘suggesting the possible re-emergence of a supply bottleneck in the property market in the medium term.’