Of the country’s 70 major cities, Tianjin, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Jinhua and Wenzhou recorded falling prices. In used homes, 17 out of the 70 cities saw prices fall, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. „The price of second-hand real estate in ten major cities has dropped in two consecutive months and significant price changes have occurred in 70 other cities,“ said Zhang Dawei, senior analyst, Centaline Property Agency.
According to the property research website Anjuke, the November figures show a gradually stabilizing market trend, although the decline has been relatively strong in other major markets. The number of properties sold in Guangzhou last month fell 34.9 percent in October; In Beijing and Shanghai, the decline was 14.3 and 13.9 percent, respectively.
Zhang Bo, chief analyst at Anjuke, said that with stable policies, demand for Chinese real estate has become more rational as more and more people have decided to buy apartments to live in rather than speculate. He does not believe, however, that the recent slowdown will trigger a lasting trend.
According to Anjuke’s study, 51 percent of homebuyers do not expect the government to take further action to lower prices. This will make both the consumer and the real estate industry more rational.
Large-city land supply is another sign that it is too early to talk about a continued market slump, Zhang said in light of the slow growth in real estate market space in November.
Li Tie, director-general of the China Center for Urban Development, believes there are other ways to lower housing prices. „In a country with 1.4 billion people, it’s perfectly normal for housing prices in Beijing or Shanghai to be high,“ he said. The biggest problem of the ongoing urbanization process is the unbalanced distribution of public resources. Further measures such as the development of the environment and the improvement of the transport infrastructure could also result in price reductions.
