China’s housing market nightmare is nowhere near over as owners eye quick exits
While China’s September stimulus blitz has restored US$4 trillion of value to stock markets, the wealth effect in the property sector is less obvious and immediate
So far, that optimism has been fleeting.
The 41-year-old office clerk in Shanghai has been eager to sell her three-bedroom flat in the city’s southwestern Gubei district, only to find the market still in a spiral. Her agent has recommended cutting the asking price further.
“A package of policies will at least fuel a market rebound and I will take the opportunity to cash out,” Zhu said. “Taking a long view, I bet home prices will continue to decline, since the national economy is unlikely to grow rapidly again over the next decade.”
The sentiment on the other side of the fence is similar. Armed with a 20 million yuan (US$2.8 million) budget, Andy Zhao and his wife Amber Ying, who both work in the tech sector, have been spending most of their weekends searching for an ideal first home in Shanghai.
They believe current market prices for new homes are still expensive and have decided to wait for another 5 to 10 per cent discount before committing themselves, given the lingering weakness in the broader economy.
