BEIJING (Reuters) – Home sales in China rose during the National Day after a series of property stimulus measures aimed at boosting the country’s troubled real estate market since late September, state media said on Saturday.
The world’s second-largest economy has introduced policy measures this year, including cuts to down payment ratios and mortgage rates, to support the real estate sector, which previously made up a quarter of economic activity.
During the week-long holiday period that started on Tuesday, the number of home visits, which reflect willingness to buy a home, increased significantly, while home sales rose to “varying degrees” in many places, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
More than 50 cities introduced policies to boost the real estate market, while nearly 2,000 projects from more than 1,000 real estate companies participated in promotions, CCTV said, citing the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
Visits to most projects participating in the promotions increased by more than 50% year-on-year, the report said.
Last month, the city of Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong announced the lifting of all restrictions on home purchases, while Shanghai and Shenzhen said they would relax restrictions on home purchases by non-local buyers and reduce the minimum down payment ratio for first-time buyers. home buyers would reduce it to zero. less than 15%.
Those measures came days after China unveiled its biggest stimulus measure since the COVID-19 pandemic, in a bid to pull the economy out of deflation.
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by William Mallard)