Much to their disappointment, real-estate developers in Shenzhen
have found that the just-concluded week-long National Day holiday
did not yield the bumper harvest of deals they had come to
expect.
Potential homebuyers in Shenzhen took a wait-and-see approach in
the face of a barrage of marketing incentives that included free
home decorations, appliances and lucky draws.
Official statistics indicate that apartment sales actually
dipped during the October 1-7 national holiday.
No more than 19 apartments were sold per day, and only four were
sold on the least active day.
Huang Yiwen, deputy secretary-general of the Guangdong
Provincial Real Estate Association, attributed the "abnormal"
phenomenon to the impacts of the new mortgage loan policy that was
released right before the National Day holiday and to homebuyers'
expectations of more real estate-related macro-manipulation
policies that will probably bring down the already sky-high housing
prices in the city.
"The State released a new policy in late September to raise the
down payment for property mortgage loans to 40 percent for those
buying second apartments. Many potential buyers hope the measure
will slow the rapid growth in prices," he said.
"Many more bet the State will churn out more policies to rein in
the rampant growth of housing prices in the nation's big cities, so
they are waiting to see what happens."
Wang Shuquan, general manager of Miland Holdings (Shenzhen),
said many Shenzhen residents were hoping to buy apartments in Hong
Kong, which had also dampened local sales.
"The price of housing in Shenzhen has risen to such an extent
that some apartments in Shenzhen are more expensive than those in
Hong Kong. And the rental return on Hong Kong properties is
generally higher than those in Shenzhen," Wang said.
"Quite a few Shenzhen people are turning to property in Hong
Kong to avoid the effects of possible new policies aimed at
manipulating the real estate market on the mainland."
Wang said his firm had organized on-site visits to several
premium properties for more than 200 Shenzhen people during the
holiday. More than 10 percent of them said they were keen to
buy.
"Many of the Shenzhen buyers had benefited handsomely from the
housing price hike in the past couple of years," he said.
"I think many more of them will invest in properties in Hong
Kong to avoid the local policy risks."
(China Daily October 9, 2007)
