The fourth quarter of 2007 saw the end of Beijing and Shanghai’s housing boom. As transaction volumes plummeted by as much as 25 and 40 percent from July to August 2008 and by 67 and 70 percent year on year in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, developers’ are having to offer buyers’ massive discounts to boost sales of new units. According to CCTV, last month’s (August), average daily turnover in Beijing was a meagre 150 units which in Beijing standards is a new all time low.
Secondhand properties are also not doing well with a year-on-year decline of 10-15 percent in August, sellers have having to make price cuts by as much as 5 percent.
The situation at the moment is that it is a buyers’ market in housing in 1st tier Chinese cities with more and more potential buyers waiting to see if there would be further price drops to pick up properties at bargain prices.



