Home sales rise by 64.3 per cent in Chongqing, the barometer of China’s national market
- Megacity reported rally in 2017-18 that pushed average property prices up by 56 per cent before a cooling in second half last year
The sales of new homes in the megacity of Chongqing in southwest China jumped by 64.3 per cent in March to 2.12 million square metres, according to consultancy Cric. It had recorded a cooling in its property market in the second half of 2018.
The city, with an area 74 times that of Hong Kong, recorded the sale of 31.23 million square metres of new homes last year and is China’s largest market in terms of area of residential apartments sold. It is also indicative of the overall China market, with the country’s other coastal cities generally moving ahead of the national cycle.
Chongqing’s home sales figure is now just on par with a monthly average of the past eight months and is 31 per cent off a year ago, when the market was booming, according to Cric. A similar uptick has also been recorded in the cities of Hangzhou and Xiamen, among others. Its average home price, at 11,324 yuan ($1,687) per square metre, remains flat at just a fifth that of China’s top cities.
“March is a traditionally busy season, as developers roll out more projects for sale. Sentiment has grown stronger along with a national outlook of more policy easing,” said Yuan Longyue, a Chongqing-based analyst with Cric. Yuan added that registry data lagged behind real-time transactions, which would be reflected better in April sales data.
“The city’s property market generally moves in sync with the country. When the overall market entered a boom in 2017, Chongqing did so. And when national sentiment cooled in the second half of 2018, it cooled too,” said Yuan.
