While home sales are facing a slump in China’s large, top-tier cities, they are going from strength to strength in some of their lesser known counterparts.
As the government continues to intensify measures designed to curb runaway property prices in large cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, while reducing a housing glut in many smaller ones, analysts expect some lower-tier cities -- especially those in economically strong provinces -- to lead the country’s home price growth this year.
Long-forgotten Yancheng, for example, a relatively small city of seven million residents in northeastern Jiangsu province, has been experiencing a real estate boom since the second half of last year.
Sales prices and volume have soared as home buyers have rushed to the market. There are even supply constraints in some areas, the state-run news website Chinanews.com reported this week.
In the east of the city, some new apartments have shot up in price to over 10,000 yuan per square metre, from last year’s 6,000 yuan market level, according to the Chinanews.com report.
“Strict restrictions on home purchases and mortgages in big cities have pushed many migrant workers to go back home to buy a house,” said Luo Hao, research head at agency Centaline Property in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province, close to Yancheng.