When the Speculation Ends: Beijing Home Sales Fall 96pc

Caijing: 北京商住房限购1年成交萎缩 商住签约环比跌94.6%

On March 27, it was a whole year since the Beijing “326” commercial housing restriction policy. According to data provided by the Centaline Property Research Center, only 3,589 sets of commercial and residential apartments were signed within one year of commercial and residential purchase restriction policies, which was 67013 sets of one year before and after the regulation, a drop of 94.6%.

Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Centaline Property, said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily that from the data of the past year, it can be seen that the overall market has been completely frozen. In fact, in addition to the obvious cooling of the trading market, commercial and residential land markets have also experienced significant fevers. The specific performance is that the number of commercial land parcels sold after the restriction of commercial and residential purchases has been significantly reduced. At the same time, the flow phenomenon that has not existed for many years has reappeared. In addition, from the average price point of view, the average price reduction of second-hand housing prices in the commercial and residential market has exceeded 30%, and some second-hand housing prices have fallen by more than 40%.

"Generally speaking, after Beijing introduced a strict historical commercial-restrictive purchase restriction policy, the overheated commercial and residential market has been hit very hard." Zhang Dawei said.

... Overall, the transaction volume of newly built commercial housing in the 50 typical cities in the first, second and third tiers dropped by 35%, 30% and 22% year-on-year, respectively. It is expected that there will be no significant improvement in the national property market in March.

From one year ago, Caixin: Beijing Tightens Controls on Commercial Housing in Capital

The Beijing municipal government, struggling to control a housing bubble, has strengthened curbs on property purchases by closing a loophole that allowed offices to be converted into residential apartments.

Authorities announced on Sunday that effective immediately, commercial buildings — mainly offices and shops — cannot be turned into homes for individual buyers without government authorization. In addition, only legally registered public institutions, companies and other social organizations will be able to buy units in such developments.

...Known as “altered-use properties,” these apartments come with land-use rights of 40 to 50 years, less than the 70 years given to normal residential housing. As the buildings were officially registered as commercial property, they had no natural-gas supply and they also carried higher electricity and property management charges.

They were also a target for speculators. Real-estate agent Centaline Property estimates that 60% to 70% of buyers were investors, with only about 30% of demand coming from people planning to live in the apartments themselves.