Property sales in major mainland cities are expected to remain sluggish during the 'golden week' national holiday that starts this weekend.
Traditionally a peak period for sales, the seven-day holiday from Saturday is not expected to see the usual number of buyers, say agents, despite the promise of developer discounts to encourage sales.
'There will be no big increase in sales during the holiday. Demand will be more or less the same as it is right now,' said Andy Lee Yiu-chi, head of the Shenzhen branch of real estate agency Centaline Property.
Lacklustre interest from buyers might turn positive, however, if developers responded by releasing new projects at even steeper discounts to drum up sales, said Lee. Some new projects are on sale at prices about 10 per cent below secondary market prices in the same areas.
But under the weight of government moves to curb demand and price growth in the property sector, sales have slumped sharply in Shenzhen, with just 1.4 million square metres of new flats sold in the first half of the year, compared with four million square metres sold for the whole of last year, said Lee.
'The data shows that sales performance is far from satisfactory as the number of people eligible to buy homes has been sharply reduced under the government's cooling measures,' he said.
In January, Beijing announced eight austerity measures to cool the property boom. At least 35 cities moved to restrict registered residents from buying more than two flats. The same restriction will apply to smaller cities.