Central government policies intended to reduce housing inventories continue to take effect, with the total floorspace for 80 Chinese cities dropping to a more than four year low.
The latest data from the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute indicates that the new commercial housing inventory floorspace for 80 cities monitored was 393.9 million square metres as of the end of October, for a month-on-month decline of 2.1% and a year-on-year drop of 10.1%.
The figure marks the 27th month that the 80 cities monitored by Shanghai E-House have posted a year-on-year decline in their new commercial housing inventory floorspace.
The inventory floorspace figure for October also marks a more-than four year low which was last breached in August 2013.
According to Shanghai E-House the nationwide 80-city inventory volume has declined continuous since 2015 since the roll out of property market control policies by the Chinese government.
Yan Juejin (严跃进), an analyst from Shanghai E-House, said that the widespread implementation of strict pre-sale approval policies around China was the key reason for inventory declines.
“The newly approved pre-sales area for new commercial residential housing in 80 cities in October 2017 was 278.2 million square metres, for a month-on-month decline of 33.3%, and year-on-year decline of 36.4%.
“Overall, the pace at which real estate companies are pushing new properties is easing. This also indicates that current pre-sale certificate control policies remain quite strict, as well as in excess of expectations.”
