Property agents get busy as China's big cities see brisk sales

But analysts say it's unclear if surge in home sales after easing of curbs can be sustained

- Michelle Ng and Joyce ZK Lim

BEIJING/SHENZHEN - Shenzhen real estate agent Feng Kunzhu, 34, barely had time to eat at the start of China's Golden Week holidays from Oct 1, a day after the Chinese government eased home-buying curbs in its latest bid to rescue the country's ailing property market.

Potential home buyers, including those from out of town who are now free to purchase a wider range of properties in parts of Shenzhen, have thronged show-flats across the southern Chinese city.

Mr Feng, who works with real estate agency Beike, called this surge in business "rain after a long drought". He had one client who put in an offer after just half an hour of viewing a property, he said.

"There were more clients than I could bring around," he told The Straits Times on Oct 5, near a cluster of new property developments by the Shenzhen North railway station. "It's been tiring, but I am happy to be tired."

In at least 25 Chinese cities, homes are being sold in numbers not seen since the housing market came crashing down in 2021, after a regulatory crackdown on high leverage among property developers triggered a liquidity crisis, leaving a trail of uncompleted homes after some developers defaulted on their debts.

Based on data from the Beijing-based real estate research institute China Index Academy, released on Oct 8, the number of new homes sold in the first seven days of October jumped 27 per cent over the same period in 2023.

New home sales in the first week of October in Beijing and Shanghai exceeded that for the whole of September, while Guangzhou and Shenzhen's sales doubled the previous month's, the institute's data showed.