Hangzhou property prices soar on ‘face lift’ ahead of G20 summit

Hangzhou, the Zhejiang province capital gearing up to hosting the G20 summit in September, has seen property prices soar in the districts around the newly-built event venue amid a massive facelift for the city.

Housing prices near the Hangzhou Olympic and International Expo Centre, where the G20 summit and the 2022 Asian Games will be held, have increased around 40 per cent since the second half of last year, according to local property agents. They are set to rise more next year, with record-high prices being fetched at auctions of nearby land lots.

Hangzhou government’s land transfer income in the first half of the year quadrupled to 81.7 billion yuan (HK$95.2 billion), the most among all mainland cities in the period, according to a report released on Monday by property research institute China Index Academy.

A Country Garden development that opened late June near the expo centre located in Binjiang district has sold “very well”, with an average price of more than 30,000 yuan per square metre compared with average prices of just over 20,000 yuan last year at two property developments nearby, said Dai Dunshan, a property agent with Lianjia.

“New home prices, especially in the core Binjiang district, have risen at least 30 per cent from mid-last year. But the increase would be more next year, as land in the area is being sold at high prices now,” he said.

In May a plot of land near the centre was awarded to a consortium led by Cinda in one of the most expensive transactions in the countryfor 12.32 billion yuan, or 21,576 yuan per square metre.

Unlike some other mainland cities, Hangzhou currently does not have any restrictions on buying properties.Some of the buyers have come from the nearby cities of Shanghai and Wenzhou, according to property agents.

“There is a lot of demand for homes in Binjiang as it is a new district with not a lot of supply, but there are also speculators from outside Hangzhou. I had some clients who purchased whole floors of serviced apartments,” Dai said.

The Hangzhou Olympic and International Expo Centre, which first broke ground in 2009, is a 27.18 billion yuan project with a total area of 584 hectares. It is part of the Hangzhou government’s masterplan to shift the city’s development from the core area around the West Lake to the southbank of the Qiantang River, where four new subway lines are being built.

Another property agent said, “There had been lots of demolition in the area, the demand is quite strong. Basically new projects get sold more than 80 per cent as soon as they open.”