Opinion | Anti-corruption drive triggers frantic property dump from officials
Real estate agents in provinces such as Guangdong and Jiangsu have been frantically trying to push deals for a torrent of second-hand flats suddenly released on the market – many of which belong to government officials.
With an imminent state-led corruption crackdown looming, nervous Chinese officials - some of whom own multiple properties - are swiftly dumping assets via private channels such as intermediaries.
Property agents have reported receiving mass produced text messages such as “Eight sets of hard-to-find flats, owner selling all at once".
“What’s strange is that these government people are anxious enough to call us requesting an urgent search for intermediaries to help sell their property holdings,” said a Jiangsu property manager from a financial advisory who went by the alias, Yang Zhi.
The massive fire sale has sparked concerns that oversupply could lead to a decline in home prices in the secondary market. However, Chinese real estate mogul Huang Nubo, of the Zhongkun Investment Group, pointed out that the government’s anti-corruption policies could actually be more effective in stabilising the property bubble than the recent financial caps and monetary easing.
Huang reiterated that real estate markets would be brought back to normal because they would more accurately reflect trends in demand and supply since officials had no more undeclared property to secretly hoard.
