Door flies off hinges as Chinese homebuyers storm building in frenzy to snap up flats

Homebuyers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, knocked down a door to a residential building in a frenzy to buy flats on Saturday, underscoring the appetite for property as growth slows.

Surveillance camera footage showed at least 100 homebuyers storming the building at around 9am when the flats went on sale, website Sina.com reported without identifying the source of the footage.

One side of a set of double front doors flies off its hinges and lands on a man, who is pulled up staff only to rejoin the rush.

Hangzhou property prices have risen for 16 straight months since April, 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The average price of new commercial housing sold was 16,999 yuan (HK$19,770) per square metre in August, up 7.9 per cent from July, according to TMSF.com, the website of a Hangzhou property agency.

Bureau data showed a slight easing in the buying frenzy in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou but a continued surge in prices in second-tier centres.

From September 19, non-local residents who already owned a flat in Hangzhou were banned from buying more in the city as the municipal government sought to dampen property speculation.

Non-local buyers accounted for less than 20 per cent of home purchases in Hangzhou in the first half but that share rose to 39.3 per cent only one week after the Group of 20 summit held in the city at the start of the month, according to TMSF.com.

In all, 5,105 homes were bought on September 18 before the government decree came into effect, a Sina news site reported, citing TMSF.com data.