Li Huixiang, a property broker in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, had been looking forward to a bumper March. In an effort to boost the city’s flagging property sector and the local economy along with it, municipal officials unveiled an array of incentives, including lower mortgage rates and cash subsidies for new home buyers.
But Li, normally a star agent at one of the largest residential developments in Zhengzhou, has sold only five apartments at Sunac City since the measures were announced — a fraction of his normal sales volume.
“The stimulus measures aren’t enough to offset negative factors that are showing little sign of easing,” Li said, citing factors including travel restrictions related to Covid-19 and falling household incomes
Compared with the same period last year, new home sales in Zhengzhou fell more than 30 percent in the six weeks from March 1 to mid-April, mirroring a nationwide trend.
The city, the provincial capital of Henan province and just 2.5 hours south of Beijing by high-speed rail, requires all arrivals to quarantine for three days. Li and other brokers said the flow of property buyers from other cities or provinces, who used to account for more than half of their sales, had come to a halt.
“There is a conflict between boosting housing sales and following Covidprevention rules,” said Li. Housing sales in Chinese cities plunged in March