In the new-home market, daily sales during the eight-day Golden Week holiday declined 17% from last year, according to data on 35 major cities tracked by China Index Holdings Ltd. Daily sales of existing properties slid 8% over the period, separate data by China Real Estate Information Corp.’s tally on eight major cities showed.
The subdued sales underscore China’s struggle to arrest a record housing-market slump that’s stifling economic growth and worsening a debt crisis among developers. Workers returned Monday after the holiday period that usually marks the peak of the industry’s September-October busy season. Embattled developers had counted on it to spark a long-awaited sales revival.
Yet sales in the eight-day holiday, mostly in early October, slumped 31% by the daily average from September, according to CRIC data tracking preliminary new-home sales in 22 major cities. Existing-home sales showed a steeper plunge, down 84% from the September average. Another reason is the “bottlenecks” of home-buying demand after the spurt of sales last month, Lu said. Anjuke’s indexes taking the temperature of online home viewing suggest buyer interest has ebbed across the country.