Housing market begins to cool down

Overheated property markets in major cities have started to cool down after authorities took measures against speculative buying and a potential home market bubble. However, a long-term effort is needed to make the market stable and sustainable, analysts said.

Last month, new home prices dropped in seven cities, compared with six in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which monitors housing prices in 70 cities nationwide.

In Shenzhen, where housing prices rocketed by more than 30 percent, a record, in the past several months, prices declined by 0.5 percent in October.

"After first-tier cities and some key second-tier cities launched cooling measures, home prices have obviously become stable," Liu Jianwei, NBS senior statistician, wrote in a note posted on the NBS website.

Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Xiamen and Zhengzhou began to see home prices switching from rising to dropping in the second half of October, with average prices down by between 0.1 percent and 0.4 percent compared with the first half of the month, he noted.

Housing authorities in more than 20 cities have launched various measures against speculative buying to curb rapid home price growth, including setting stricter requirements for qualified buyers, higher down payments and limits on buying second and third homes.

Yan Yuejin, an analyst with property research agency E-House China R&D Institute, said the residential property market is "digesting these policies and measures gradually, and it is likely for the market to have rational and stable prices in the near future".

Ma Junwei, an analyst with Deyi Realty in Shanghai, said it will require a long-term effort by regulators and local authorities to battle speculative buying while keeping supplies stable for buyers with solid demand, including those who plan to buy their first home or upgrade their housing.

In Shanghai, real estate agents said they have noticed that homebuyers have become more rational.

"Buyers are starting to take their time and study their options. They will compare prices, designs and locations and bargain with sales representatives," said Luo Dingjun, sales manager at Jinyu Property Marketing.

"This was not the case two months ago, when they rushed to buy for fear that if they hesitated, prices would grow too fast and they would no longer be able to afford."