Beijing puts no price cap on land sale, signalling property-market shift
For the first time since 2021, market forces will decide the worth of a plot, as well as the prices of homes built on the site
Occupying 63,700 square metres (721,000 sq ft) in the Fengtai district, the site has a starting price of 11 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), according to an official statement from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources.
The third plot offered this year with a price tag above 10 billion yuan, the site is expected to support 178,300 square metres of floor space, the statement said. It sits at the intersection of two subway lines and is close to shopping malls and parks, as well as a soon-to-be-completed transport hub that connects to Beijing Daxing International Airport within 20 minutes.
The statement did not place an upper limit on the land price or mention guide prices that developers would have to comply with for homes built on the land. It is the first omission of such requirements since March 2021, when the city introduced the restrictions to contain runaway home prices in a red-hot market.
The restrictions left little room for developers to adjust prices of new homes based on market performance, hampering the property market’s recovery in the world’s second-largest economy amid a slowdown that started in 2021 after Beijing tightened rules on borrowing by developers.
“The removal of a price limit is closely related to the cooled market sentiment,” said Meng Xinzeng, an analyst with China Index Academy. “The land market has been sluggish for a year, which forced many cities to scrap restrictions on prices this year.”
