Group to focus on downtown area where prices are stronger
The slumping mainland property market has prompted Guangzhou Investment (GZI), the listed arm of the Guangzhou city government, to cut its new property development plans this year by 25 per cent, but the group remains bullish about the sector's long-term prospects.
The red-chip conglomerate's area for new development would fall to 880,000 square metres this year from the originally planned 1.18 million square metres, vice-chairman and general manager Zhang Zhaoxing said yesterday.
The average selling price of new residential properties in the southern city had fallen 20 per cent from the peak in October last year and transactions in the first half of this year dropped 43 per cent as government measures to cool the market took effect, Mr Zhang said.
He said GZI would cut its new development area in the countryside but increase the proportion in the downtown area where property prices were stronger.
'Property prices downtown have stabilised since the Lunar New Year, and I don't think prices will fall dramatically again given the limited land supply,' Mr Zhang said.
