Shenzhen property fever starts to cool
Mayor says curbs on speculators have paid off and the market has stabilised
Shenzhen Mayor Xu Zhongheng denied yesterday that speculation was a problem in the city's property market, despite a 17 per cent rise in property prices last year, saying that measures taken by the government had seen the market cool since January.
'The rate of increase in property prices last year was quite big and the government was very concerned, but Shenzhen's prices are rational and reasonable at current levels,' Mr Xu said on the sidelines of the Guangdong People's Congress meeting in Guangzhou.
He said he did not see any evidence of speculation in the property market because 90 per cent of Shenzhen apartments were lived in and lit up at night, unlike in some cities where dark windows were a sign of speculation.
About 9 million square metres of housing came onto the market every year in Shenzhen, more or less matching demand, 'so the market is balanced', he said.
The price of housing presently averaged 7,000 yuan per square metre, office space went for 11,000 yuan per square metre, and retail premises fetched an average of 12,000 yuan per square metre.
The government's cooling measures included cracking down on speculators, providing information to property buyers and making more land available to developers.
Property market analysts, however, said speculators were taking advantage of Shenzhen's scarce land, control on land supply within the customs area and its proximity to Hong Kong to drive up prices.
The speculators are mostly Hongkongers, who mainly snap up properties near the Lowu and Huanggang customs checkpoints, while flats in Nanshan have become hotly sought after in anticipation of the completion of the Western Corridor. But some foreign funds are also in the market.
Mr Xu denied that a tunnel would be built linking Shenzhen with Zhongshan .
'I don't know about this. I received a document yesterday and I say as Shenzhen mayor and as director of planning, we have not considered this and no one under my supervision has reported such a plan to me, so this is untrue,' he said.
While admitting security was still a major problem and the city was a channel for drug smugglers, he said controlling crime was not just the responsibility of police but of society as a whole.
