The latest official data indicates that the area of commercial residential property for sale across China fell to a 28-month low in June.
Figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that the area of commercial residential property for sale was 645.77 million square metres at the end of June, for a define of 14.41 million square metres compared to the preceding month.
NBS data further indicates that the structure of property destocking is undergoing a shift, from first and second tier cities, which were property hot spots last year, to the peripheries of first-tier cities as well as third and fourth tier cities with stronger economic conditions.
A report on housing destocking just released by Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institution indicates that cities that saw a rise in their destocking cycle in Q2 compared to Q1 were dominated by first-tier and second-tier urban centres, and included Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Changchun, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Jinan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Hefei, Nanchang, Changsha, Fuzhou, Nanning, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Xining, Jining, Nantong, and Jingme.
The report further indicates that third and fourth-tier cities figured prominently amongst those seeing a decline in their destocking cycles in the first half of 2017, with the five urban centres posting the biggest declines including Beihai, Guiyang, Maoming, Jiujiang and Yantai.
Analysts point out that existing property market policies are likely to implemented over the long-term should they prove effective, with the goals of spurring economic deleveraging, restoring the focus of the market to owner-occupiers and making first-home buyers a key source of demand.
