Vicky Xu / Shanghai Daily news

Out-of-town real estate investors' retreat has plunged new home sales. But the gradual input of the home buyers who seek place to live rather than speculate is bailing the market out, the Youth Daily reported yesterday.
Take the Yi Jing Garden in the Songjiang Province for example. The sales of its third phase project in May has been much worse than that of the second in February, but the proposition of the buyers who need a flat for residential use has increased.
"In February, we could sell more than 100 new apartments within three days. Now, we spend more than half a month to sell 30," said Chen Huixiang, president of the developer of Yi Jing Garden, the Sansheng Hongye Investment Co Ltd.
""However, we find customers become more local. In February, fewer than 50 percent of our customers were Shanghai residents, but now, the number rises to nearly 80 percent. Local people who plan to live here are supporting our sales," he added.
Reporters' researches found that despite the sales slow-down that was prevailing the market, there were still new projects that were selling well. Most of them have a field that is bigger than 500 mu (330,000 square meters), are able to accomodate more than 10,000 people, and priced at 10,000 yuan per square meter or lower. Their customers are consisted mainly of Shanghai residents.
"New home policies are many and tight, but local people still have strong wills to buy a home to live," a director of a suburban home project developer concluded after its own survey.