Personal Finance

Record surge in used apartment sales

By Wang Ru (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-25 07:57

There has been a record surge in the number of second-hand apartment sales in Beijing in November, with about 1,000 transactions every day.

According to a report in Beijing Business Today, the monthly demand for older houses in Beijing has reached 85,000 apartments, while the market supply is only 20,000. The supply-demand ratio is the highest this year.

Statistics released by bjfdc.gov.cn, an official website for the Beijing real estate trade administration, show that as of Nov 15, the second-hand apartment transaction volume reached 217,000, almost equal to the total amount of sales from 2006 to 2008.

Experts believe the demand is fueled by fear that housing prices will continue to rise and that the government will stop offering a 30 percent discount on interest rates to first home buyers in order to stop the market overheating.

The average price of a second-hand property in Beijing has risen to 12,415 yuan per sq m, or 1.16 million yuan per apartment. Even so, the average transaction period was only 10 days in November - the shortest this year.

"The transaction amount in November will definitely exceed 30,000 apartments. The trend will continue in December," said Zhang Dawei, marketing director of Midland Real Estate agency in Beijing.

In a recent online survey conducted by China Real Estate Research Center, 70 percent of consumers said interest rates influenced their decision on whether or not to purchase an apartment.

According to the Bank of Beijing, the number of loans for second-hand housing in November increased three times on last year.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission and the People's Bank of China have signaled that it could tighten its policy on commercial residential house loans for first homebuyers, but major commercial banks say they are yet to be notified.

The major four State-owned banks and the Bank of Beijing have changed the qualification criteria for the 30 percent discount, and increased the required down payment from 20 percent to 40 percent.

According to Xu Huadong, marketing director of First Title, a real estate finance company in Beijing, whether the discount would continue depends on the economic trend in December and early 2010.