Shimao looks to speed up sales of unsold units in China
Group offers discounts in cities with housing glut in its push to clear 5b yuan worth of stock
Shimao Property Holdings says it will destock half of its unsold units worth 10 billion yuan (HK$12.6 billion) that are carried over from last year and cut prices in cities suffering from a housing glut, according to vice-chairman Jason Hui Sai-tan.
"These unsold units are mostly on the first or top floor and that's why we cannot find buyers even if we put them on the market for more than a year," he said.
Shimao had offered discounts and incentives to boost sales in Hangzhou and Ningbo as the two cities had experienced a surplus of housing, Hui said after the firm's annual general meeting yesterday.
For instance, buyers of the group's New West Lake residential project in Hangzhou were offered a one-year rental subsidy of as much as 12,000 yuan while awaiting delivery. The promotion will last until June 30.
"We have to adopt different price strategies as supply and demand varies in different cities. In cities like Nanjing and Xiamen, prices of our projects have risen by 10 per cent due to the tight supply of new flats," said Hui.
Shimao would only offer incentive schemes for projects with sluggish sales and the gross amount of receivables were less than 5 per cent of pre-sales, he said.