Top Biz News
Dreaming of their own homes
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-02-26 15:31
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Market reaction: sales volume slumps, but price still firm
☆Fewer buy homes and sales volume slumps
Holiday property sales sluggish in major cities
2010-02-23
Home sales in major cities shrank while property prices remained stable during the Spring Festival holiday, as buyers and property developers wait for more policy clues from the upcoming sessions of the nation's legislature and advisory body.
According to China Index Institute, a real estate industry research organization, cold winter weather halted many transactions in Beijing, Nanjing and Hangzhou during the Spring Festival holiday between Feb 13 and Feb 19.
"Intense tightening of real estate policies has intensified buyers' wait-and-see attitude, while shrinking supply also led to sluggish sales," said Hu Jinghui, vice-president of 5i5j, a real estate agency based in Beijing. [Full Story]
Beijing: Real estate market cools in Jan
2010-02-02Beijing's real estate market trade plummeted in January with the price of property barely changing from the previous month, as the municipal government aims to curb investment-led demand in the housing market, Economic Information Daily reported February 2.
Demand decline and policy restrictions are believed to be behind the market face-about, said Meng Qi, market analyst with US-headquartered real estate brokerage Century 21. [Full Story]
BUT: ☆Price still firm, Land kings born frequently
China's housing prices up 9.5% in Jan
2010-02-11
Housing prices rose 9.5 percent in January from a year earlier in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. That was 1.7 percentage points higher than December's housing price rise, or the highest increase in 21 months. [Full Story]
Shanghai: Action heats up on Bund real estate
2010-02-02
Real estate prices in the city are on the boil again after Hong Kong-listed Zendai Group on Feb 1 bought a plot near the Bund area for a record price.
Zendai was among the four realtors who were in the fray for the 45,472-square-meters site, which was finally sold for 9.22 billion yuan ($1.35 billion), or 34,148 yuan per square meter in gross floor area. [Full Story]
2010-01-22
Property prices may have hit a new high in one Beijing district after China Overseas Property Co Ltd snapped up a parcel of land for a staggering 17,153 yuan ($2,512) per square meter on Jan 21.
China Overseas Property, one of the country's largest real estate firms, paid 5.97 billion yuan for the 348,000-square-meter piece of land.
The closing price was 200 percent higher than the owner's original asking price, thus pushing property prices to a record high in Beijing's Fengtai district. [Full Story]
Hainan: Property prices skyrocket
2010-01-29
The plan to turn China's tropical southern island of Hainan into an international tourist resort by 2020 has already started nudging property prices skywards, according to media reports.
Prices are rising by about 1,000 yuan ($164) per square meter every day for some properties. Those properties that were priced at 15,000 yuan per square meter at the start of the year now cost 20,000 yuan, reports said.
Prices of some of the properties have already hit 70,000 yuan per sq m, with figures constantly fluctuating as real estate hunters flock to the island. [Full Story]
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Opinion leaders: It takes time ...
Eyeing housing prices
2010-01-15
The recent measures taken by the government, be it a sales tax increase or the ban on land hoarding, are much like the measures enforced two years ago, when the first round of home-price increases prompted the government to take action. People are justified in asking whether government measures will really work this time.
While those measures are necessary, the country needs to reassess its development strategies if it is to tame housing prices. [Full Story]
Is the real estate bubble a hot air balloon?
2010-01-16
Over the past month, the government has adopted several measures to curb soaring property prices and stop speculation, but economists and industry insiders say they would take time to work.
Referring to the 11 specific measures included in the State Council guidelines, Pan Shiyi, chairman of China's leading property developer SOHOChina, said the last was the most important because it emphasized the responsibility of local governments to carry out the other ten.
Yi Xiangrong put the entire real estate sector in perspective: "Whether the desired effects can be achieved will depend on the extent and intensity with which the policies are enforced." [Full Story]
Ways to keep the roof on housing prices
2010-01-25
A property tycoon has questioned the government's commitment to keeping a cap on rising property prices after it was revealed that the housing market is now responsible for half of the capital's GDP.
"I saw on TV that even some migrant workers in Tianjin and Guangdong can afford a house, so why can't you (in Beijing)? The government should be responsible for high housing prices," said Ren Zhiqiang, chairman of Hua Yuan Real Estate Group.
"The government does not plan to cut the cost of land to provide cheaper apartments to low-income families. Instead, it wants to force real estate developers to build affordable houses." [Full Story]
1. Do you have a plan to purchase a home in China?
2. Do you think government measures will cool down house prices sooner or later?
3. Do you think China will announce more policies to curb real estate bubbles during the upcoming two sessions?
4. Do you hope so?
5. What's your suggestion for cooling down home prices?
Take our survey..................................................................................................
Debate: How can I buy a home of my own?
Government-financed affordable Housing:
Land in sight, but home is still too far away 2010-02-03The area earmarked for affordable housing last year was increased by about a third of what it was in 2008. But lack of timely financial support still prevents millions of Chinese from realizing their dream of owning an apartment.
"The government has supplied the land, but what matters now is how much local authorities can invest in the construction," Yan Jinming, a professor at the land management department of Renmin University told China Daily.
A report released by the National People's Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee last October showed that as of late August 2009, nearly 40 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) was invested in affordable housing projects across the country, with less than a quarter of the target met. [Full Story]
Privatedly developed residential properties:
To buy or not to buy: Chinese house buyers' dilemma
Shou Zhenwei, a 28-year-old state-owned company employee in Beijing, paid 1.4 million yuan ($205,000) for a two-bedroom apartment this month. The price was 400,000 yuan higher than Shou's budget at the beginning of the year, but he and his fiancee, Sun Hua felt they should buy quickly before prices went up further.
Shou's home outside Beijing's northern second ring road is less than 70 square meters, which equates in value to more than 20,000 yuan per sq m for the second-hand apartment built two decades ago.
That works out at two months of Shou and Sun's total gross income for each square meter. [Full Story]