China’s home sales about to fall off a cliff as coronavirus forces shutdown in sales offices

China's residential property market has come to a standstill as sales offices are ordered to shut amid the coronavirus outbreak. Some agents are bracing for a slump in sales of as much as 80 per cent this month.

“We sell 200 to 300 lived-in homes on the secondary market but now we basically have zero transaction,” Wang, a Shenzhen-based agent with one of China’s largest real estate agencies, said by phone. He declined to give his full name. “Even if you want to view, most housing estates have barred visitors from their grounds.”

The agency focuses on the Futian district in Shenzhen, where non-essential businesses have been told not to reopen their doors before February 10. Similarly, authorities in at least 60 cities have banned sales offices from opening their doors to the public, according to China Real Estate Information Corp, a Shanghai-based property research and consulting firm.

China has locked down Wuhan and other cities in the central Hubei province where the virus originated. The outbreak has claimed at least 426 lives and infected more than 20,000 worldwide, mostly in mainland China. The cases have now surpassed the count during the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003.

Property sales fell 0.1 per cent in 2019 to 1.72 billion sq m, according to National Bureau of Statistics. They rose by 6.5 per cent in value terms to 15.97 trillion yuan (US$2.28 trillion). Average new home prices in 70 major cities rose 0.3 per cent in November from October, the smallest gain in almost two years.