Will China's housing market hit the iceberg?

The shadow banking has definitely increased financing costs of developers but what is more worrisome is that it is unknown how large the shadow banking is.

Qin Hong, director of the Policy Study Center of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that as long as China does not use zero or low down payment policies and not enlarge leverage and deter speculation needs, property finance will not trigger systematic risks.

Property weakness overhangs recovery

Pan: China's property market, another Titanic

However, Shanghai-listed Shoukai Property Development Company Limited has rolled out a "zero down payment, zero monthly payment, zero interest rate" policy to promote its new apartments priced at 20,000 yuan per square meter in Tongzhou district of Beijing.

Souofun.com, a major property information provider posted this information on Monday. The "zero down payment" is only for one person, the subscriber of any apartment who wins the drawing when the company kicks off its sales opening ceremony. In fact, Shoukai will pay the down payment for the winner. The "zero monthly payment" is for three people who submit their intention for home-purchasing and also win a lot and Shoukai will pay for them. The "zero interest rate" is for all first-time home buyers, who buy from Shoukai, who will also pay this sum of money.

The "zero down payment, zero monthly payment, zero interest rate" type of promotion may well tell the story of Chinese developers and People's Daily also asked whether there are still opportunities in this industry.

There are still opportunities in the real estate sector, Yu Liang, president of Vanke Group, one of China's major developers.

Although the real estate industry is past its golden era where everybody could pick gold and has now entered the silver era, but silver is still precious metal, Yu said.

However, according to the Sina.com survey, 11,347 respondents voted no when answering the question "do you think properties are still good investment targets", accounting for 77 percent of all the respondents.