Local Chinese governments snap up new homes in bid to buoy battered housing market, ease strain on developers

The authorities in Suzhou in the southern province of Jiangsu snapped up 5,000 new units in September, according to CRIC China

That and similar moves in Jinan and Xinjiang come as a crisis gripping China’s US$2.53 trillion housing industry deepens

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The authorities in Suzhou in the southern province of Jiangsu snapped up 5,000 new units in September, according to CRIC China. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:30am, 14 Oct 2022

Local governments in China are buying up thousands of new homes in an effort to buoy the battered housing market and take some pressure off developers.

The authorities in Suzhou in the southern province of Jiangsu snapped up some 5,000 new units in September, according to calculations based on data from property information provider CRIC China.

That equates to about half the total number of new flats that were sold in the city that month.

Jinan in northern Shandong province said at the end of August that a local government arm would purchase 3,000 new flats for long-term rental use later.

And Altay prefecture in the northwestern province of Xinjiang has encouraged state-owned enterprises to buy homes in bulk and convert them into subsidised housing, according to a government notice from late September.

“The move shows the increasing pressure arising from mounting new home inventories,” said Yan Yuejin, director of the Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institute.