Beijing's housing market showed signs of warming in July, with both new and second-hand home transactions posting year-on-year increases, according to the data recently released by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
In July, the online signed volume for newly built commodity housing reached 3,200 units, up 15.7 percent year on year. Second-hand residential properties saw 13,800 online signed transactions, a 9.7 percent increase compared with the same period last year.
At a second-hand home agency in Beijing's Chaoyang District, the person in charge noted that their branch's second-hand home transaction volume in July rose 20 percent year on year. Despite July traditionally being an off-season for property sales, market enthusiasm was noticeably higher than in previous years.
"Based on publicly available data, Beijing's second-hand home market has been seeing month-on-month price increases since February this year. Many clients feel quite confident seeing this data, which has led to fairly good overall transactions for us in July," said Zhang Fei, client manager at Lianjia Beijing Branch.
The impact of five consecutive months of month-on-month positive growth in Beijing's second-hand home prices is gradually spilling over into the new housing market.
At an new housing project in Chaoyang District, the sales head explained that the positive changes in the second-hand market since February have also boosted their sales.
"Overall for this project, our buyers that seek housing improvement account for about 50 percent. Since February or March this year, with better second-hand home prices and transactions, customers have been more decisive when purchasing homes," said Jiang Leijiao, project sales head at China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd.
Meanwhile, the implementation of the "high-quality housing" policy has significantly improved the overall quality of newly built commodity housing projects. Changes in the competitive landscape have also prompted developers to place greater emphasis on delivery quality. It is learnt that currently, the vast majority of new housing projects in Beijing are winning buyer recognition through measures such as opening construction sites to visitors and setting up real-life model units.
"When visiting this property, I can see the construction quality, including the exterior facade and what materials are used. These are reasons that make me more confident in placing an order, and I feel more assured about the purchase," said a homebuyer in Beijing surnamed Tian.
Beijing new, second-hand home sales rise year-on-year in July
