Visitors look at property models at the Shanghai real estate fair.
“As of this Tuesday, 62 new projects are expected to be released by the end of April, and 15 of them have already started pre-sale,” said Xue Jianxiong, an analyst with Nasdaq-listed China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC).
The momentum started in late March, when 619,000 square meters of new housing was made available from March 20 to 27, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total in the month.
“Usually, the best season for property sales is May and June, and in each peak season, the new projects released won’t exceed 40,” said Xue.
“The last four days of March saw average sales of more than 1,000 every day, marking the beginning of the new sales season, which will last throughout April and May,” said Ma Ji, a consulting manager with Centaline Property Agency Ltd in Shanghai.
“However, if the price stays at a high rate, the trade volume will not be able to pick up. In such circumstances, further tightening policies from the central government are inevitable,” Ma said.
As the host city of the World Expo, the authorities in Shanghai have required all construction sites to suspend work within an area of 25 sq km of the Expo.
But analysts said the recent explosive growth in the number of projects recently released has little to do with the restriction.
“Only a limited amount of residential projects are included in the 25 sq km area, and most of these are luxury housing. Actually, developers have made good preparations to cope with the new regulation,” said Michael Klibaner, head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Shanghai. – read more at People’s Daily Online…