Housing prices predicted to drop 10-15%
2/8/2004 11:48
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
A local property
dealer predicted that the housing prices in Shanghai would likely fall 10-15
percent in the coming quarter.
With the government policies to curb the
city's overheated housing market taking effect, housing trade has started to
decline from April, said Wang Qian, general manager of Bonity Property Group
(Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
She said so last Thursday at a seminar in
Shanghai.
Cited by the International Financial News, she said the decline was
10-20 percent in that month at local property brokerage firms and widened to 30
percent in June.
"In July, the situation didn't improve, because more banks
followed the government's guidance to tighten the loans," she said, adding that
some banks have suspended loan business to office buildings, commercial spaces
and old apartments.
If the tightening policies continue, the local home
market is set to further slow down in August and the prices will drop deeper,
particularly those of the projects in such prime areas as Zhongshan Park, Gubei
area, Lujiazui and Century Park, the general manager said.
She expected the
price fall for these properties to range between 10 and 15 percent in the coming
three months, while those of projects in less expensive areas will be
narrower.
Trade of up-scale properties in the expensive areas has shed by
some 40 percent from before April, she noted.
"To quicken the home sale,
some property developers are willing to slash the prices by 5 percent," she
disclosed.
Despite the forecast that the city's home trade would continue the
sliding trend in August and fall 45 percent from before April, Wang said the
trade might pick up from September.
But it all depends on whether the banks
will loosen the loan policies, she noted.
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