Demand upholds housing prices in Q2

Beijing's high-end primary prices remain steady in the second quarter despite downward economic pressure sustained by stable demand, a report from international real estate consultancy company JLL showed.

Primary luxury apartment prices were largely flat, recording only a marginal decrease of -0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter. Several recently launched projects slightly lowered prices to achieve higher sales rates. Meanwhile, stable demand supported high-end secondary prices, which rose slightly by 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to statistics from JLL.

CATHAY is a high-end estate developer currently involved in projects along the southern third ring road in the capital. Li Chengwen, salesperson at the company, says that current buyers are usually those seeking and upgrade in living conditions; the majority of purchases through CATHAY are for personal use.

Since opening for sale in November last year, the project has a selling rate of 95 percent, with the average sales price of 130,000 yuan ($19,118) per square meter.

"There are no pure investors in the current market now, especially in the high-end market," said Li. "Our buyers, most in the financial sector, are very rational about the market."Most industry insiders believe the housing prices will remain stable for the rest of the year.

"Under the recently reaffirmed ‘One City, One Policy’ mandate, local authorities are expected to become slightly more flexible on policy to support steady prices in the near term, in a bid to maintain demand as the current economic environment weighs on the market,” said Mi Yang, acting head of research for Beijing at JLL. "When we consider current conditions, increased flexibility on policy may help better manage the market to help smooth the path ahead.”

Wang Jiaqi contributed to this story