Experts: Rate cuts won't aid realty sector

"Buyers of top-end projects attach more importance to the product itself instead of payment methods or mortgage rates," Guan said, adding that the company doesn't anticipate changing its marketing strategy.

The marketing director of Guangqu Jinmao Palace, a luxury residential project in Beijing, agreed with that assessment.

"Amid a market correction, we need to offer better products with more value-added services. Traditional price-cutting strategies will not work for high-end products, We're pursuing a cross-sector marketing strategy, offering custom-tailored services to attract potential buyers," said the marketing director, who declined to be identified.

The project has a strategic cooperation agreement with the Armani fashion house to develop tailor-made interior decoration products for its luxury housing. It's the first such cooperation for Armani in China and the fourth globally.

Developers of apartments targeting middle-class buyers are taking a more aggressive approach.

Hangzhou-based Greentown China Holdings Ltd, for instance, plans to offer vouchers valued at 200,000 yuan ($32,570) to existing clients, good for 85 projects in 42 cities.

The developer has long been known for its unwillingness to cut prices.

"The problem is that since most potential buyers expect more price cuts in the coming months, they won't buy now if they don't need the apartment urgently," said Kou Hailong, general manager of the Beijing office of real estate brokerage firm Century 21, a franchise for United States-listed IFM Investments Ltd.

Housing prices and sales have been under pressure since the beginning of 2014, and that won't change in the foreseeable future, industry analysts said.

The average price in 100 key cities was 10,978 yuan per square meter in May, down 0.32 percent month-on-month, according to the China Index Academy Ltd, a Beijing-based research institute that's wholly owned by SouFun Holdings Ltd. That marked the first month-on-month drop since June 2012.

Nationally, the housing vacancy rate was 22.4 percent in 2013, up 1.8 percentage points from 2011, research from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu showed on Tuesday.

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