Realtors get inventive to beef up sales amid property slowdown

The transaction volume in 42 major cities reached 24.16 million square meters in October, climbing 12.6 percent monthon-month and setting a record this year so far, according to China Real Estate Index System－the country's largest real estate website.

First-tier cities all saw an increase in transaction volume, and among them, Guangzhou in Guangdong province posted the biggest month-on-month increase with 58 percent growth, followed by Shenzhen, also in Guangdong, which reported 47 percent growth.

Among the 25 second-tier cities surveyed by CREIS, 17 witnessed a surge in October compared with the previous month, with Nanjing in Jiangsu province and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province registering significant growth.

"The easing of the mortgage rules has relieved the burden of many homebuyers seeking to improve the housing condition," says Gu Yunchang, deputy head of the China Real Estate and Housing Research Association.

Despite the recent rebound in sales, most listed property developers still find it difficult to meet the sales targets set at the beginning of the year.

The sales of 21 listed property developers reached 784.6 billion yuan ($128 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, up 11.3 percent year-on-year. However, compared with their sales targets of 2014, they have achieved an average of 74 percent so far.

"The sales of listed developers have been improving since the easing of mortgage policies, but they still face a huge de-stocking pressure. Therefore, they will strengthen their efforts to stimulate sales to meet their sales target this year," says Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at property agent Centaline's Beijing branch.

Sino-Ocean Land, a Hong Kong-listed property developer, teamed up with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com to launch a large-scale sales campaign on Nov 11, now a shopping-spree day for Chinese netizens. It was the first cooperation between a property developer and an e-commerce company.

A total of 11 apartment units developed by Sino-Ocean Land in Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan and Hangzhou were on sale through JD.com, allowing the lucky buyers to purchase with a discount of 90 percent. More cooperation with JD.com is in the pipeline, according to Sino-Ocean Land.

Franshion Properties, another Hong Kong-listed property developer, also launched a large-scale online sales campaign on Nov 11. It sold out 4.27 billion yuan of apartments on Nov 11, 38 percent of its total sales in the previous 10 months.