Bumper week for property sales: CRIC

A housing fair attracts potential buyers in Changchun, Jilin province, early this month. Real estate agents in most cities across the country have reported bullish new build sales over the past week. [Photo/Xinhua]?

Real estate agents in 80 percent of 40 monitored cities across the country, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, have reported bullish new build sales over the last week.

Figures released by China Real Estate Information Corp - considered the country's leading provider of real estate information - showed brisk trading, especially in high-end properties.

The most dramatic figures came from Nanjing, which saw a 200 percent year-on-year rise in house sales between June 18 and Sunday.

In Shanghai, CRIC officials also described how they considered "a turning point" had been reached, as the average sales price rose, albeit with discounting.

However, the organization also cautioned that trading has yet to reach the point it did in 2010, before policy tightening on house prices was introduced.

CRIC said residential property sales in Beijing saw a 60 per cent rise during the Dragon Boat Festival, as 1,155 apartments were sold on Saturday and Sunday alone, against 719 last year at the same time, according to statistics it received from Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Average housing prices, meanwhile, for newly developed properties in the first 17 days of June hit 23,141 yuan ($3,640) per square meter in Shanghai, the highest for the past 18 months, according to the latest report by CRIC.

The average price of some new properties, especially high-end ones, saw an up to 20 percent year-on-year price increase in Shanghai, according to CRIC.

"Housing prices in Shanghai for newly-developed properties are seeing a turning point, as the average price is no longer dropping," said Xue Jianxiong, an analyst with CRIC.

"Instead, statistics show that house prices are beginning to rise as some properties on discount in the past months are now getting increasingly popular, pushing up demand."

Among the 56 properties monitored by CRIC in Shanghai, 30 reported price rise while 26 reported price drop.

Trading has become increasingly active in the city since May.

Apartments covering a total space of 269,400 sq m were sold in the first three weeks of June, a 41.9 percent year-on-year increase, according to the latest weekly report on sales of housing by China Index Academy, a realty information service provider.

In Beijing, the average price of residential properties in Chaoyang district rose from 18,000 yuan per sq m in May to more than 20,000 yuan per sq m, according to a report of Economic Information citing a local property agent.

House prices in China has been dropping for nine consecutive months, but officials still consider prices are too high, and the current control policies over prices are not expected to be loosened for the time being, according to a report released on Monday by government think tank State Information Center.

It added that China should accelerate its reform of the real estate tax system and adjust land transfer fee policies, to build a long-term mechanism to control house prices, replacing the current system that relies on administrative measures.

wuyiyao@chinadaily.com.cn