Beijing's new housing market has seen a robust upswing in visitor traffic and sales momentum during the ongoing May Day holiday, as real-scene project demonstrations and a buoyant second-hand housing market unlock strong demand from home buyers.
Official transaction data for April sets the stage for this holiday momentum, with Beijing's new commercial residential property online signings climbing 21 percent year on year to 4,000 units. Over the same period, the city's second-hand residential property online signings hit around 17,000 units, a 20 percent year-on-year increase, with the active secondary market boosting new home sales by fueling replacement demand.
At a new housing project in Beijing's Haidian District, the holiday rush was evident. However, unlike traditional viewings that focus primarily on model rooms and architectural sand tables, prospective buyers are increasingly prioritizing on-site inspections of the actual construction sites.
"Previously, we would only check the blueprints, which feels completely different from visiting the actual building. Here, we can personally see actual designs of the greenery and landscape of the community, as well as whether the actual fine decoration delivery matches the promised standards. This has really eased a lot of our worries and concerns," said Mr. Liu, a homebuyer in Beijing.
To address homebuyers' concerns over delivery quality and meet the growing demand for on-site inspections, real-scene demonstration has increasingly become a standard offering in the sales process of new housing projects across Beijing.
In another new housing project in Beijing's Chaoyang District, a newly opened real-scene demonstration area launched during the May Day holiday on May 1-5 has drawn large batches of prospective homebuyers for visits and inquiries.
"During the May Day holiday, we received an average of around 100 groups of visitors per day, and we concluded several batches of home buying agreements of intent and transactions every single day. We launched the display of our real-scene demonstration area right during the May Day holiday, and 70 to 80 percent of our visiting customers are willing to take a tour of it," said Yu Gang, marketing manager of the housing project in Chaoyang District.
Industry insiders noted that the growing prevalence of real-scene demonstration can intuitively showcase property quality and ease homebuyers' worries about delivery standards. Meanwhile, the strong performance of the second-hand housing market has also indirectly lifted new home sales by unlocking more replacement demand from home upgraders.
"About 50 to 60 percent of our property owners purchased their new homes through second-hand home replacement. These customers usually have sufficient funds after selling their existing properties, and then look to upgrade their housing conditions. The second-hand housing market is also seeing a rising transaction volume, which is definitely a positive driver for our project," said Han Shilei, manager of a new housing project in Beijing's Haidian District.
Beijing's new home market heats up during May Day Holiday
