Chinese real estate markets remain shaky

​SouFun, a private company that gathers information about real estate markets in China, reports that housing prices overall continued to slide last month. Average apartment prices were about 4 % lower in March than a year earlier, when prices hit their peak. The price slide has appeared to be stabilising. Still, of the 98 cities SouFun tracks, 54 saw price declines in March.

Rules on housing investment were relaxed in March to support housing sales. Now apartments bought more than two years prior to sale are exempt from sales profit tax, instead of at least five years prior to sell as before. Further, the required downpayment for a second apartment was lowered from 60–70 % to 40 % for second apartment buyers still subject to a mortgage on their first apartment. Since autumn, any buyer who has paid off the existing mortgage on their apartment can purchase a second apartment on the same terms as a first apartment buyer. The downpayment for first apartment buyers is 30 %. The impacts of the measures remain unclear at this point. Many builders and city governments have already found ways to circumvent the tightened rules of 2010.

Average apartment price and number of tracked cities where prices fell from previous month

Sources: SouFun, Macrobond