G20 Hangzhou hangover
G20 Hangzhou hangover
Panic buying strikes again in China
Zhao jian kang / Shutterstock
Trying to douse scalding residential property values in Hangzhou after it hosted the G20 summit, housing authorities inadvertently catapulted sales to record heights.
Around 5,105 homes were snapped up in the city on Sunday, the most transactions in a single day in the city. At around 5 pm on the same day, authorities had announced a measure forbidding non-residents, or those without a “hukou” or household registration certificate, from acquiring a second house in the downtown area, China Daily reported. The measure took effect Monday.
Non-local buyers accounted for 39 percent of home sales in the week after the G20 summit, the city’s housing department explained. Although marked by diplomatic controversy, the summit was “a big trigger to the city’s housing market,” Clement Luk of real estate agency Centaline Property told the South China Morning Post.
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Buyers reportedly amassed around developers’ offices in Hangzhou until midnight on Sunday. Real estate agents travelled overnight, POS machines in tow, to personally transact with clients in Shanghai, Quartz reported, citing Chinese-language newspaper Guangming Daily.
Hangzhou, a growing technological hub where Alibaba is headquartered, recorded sales of 154,000 new homes in the first eight months of this year, according to E-House China R&D Institute. The National Bureau of Statistics also revealed that average new home prices in the city registered an increase of 22 percent in August year-on-year.
Rumours of new mortgage restrictions in Shanghai in August caused a similar panic situation, shattering five-month sales records, crippled websites, and promoted divorces.
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Source: Property Report