Chinese wary of buying property despite stimulus
STORY: Fears about the economic slowdown are stopping Shanghai residents from buying property.
Despite a raft of measures rolled out by the Beijing government this week to revive the economy and target the deepening crisis in its massive debt-riddled property sector, which has been declining since 2021.
They include lower mortgage rates for first-time homebuyers.
But they're not enough to tempt residents like freelancer Li Yang.
"For now I wouldn't want to buy a house. To be honest, no matter what policies come out, it won't reach the point where ordinary people would want to buy a house."
John Lam, head of China and Hong Kong property at UBS Investment Bank Research, expects more easing measures to be announced soon.
But he still believes property transactions will drop by about 15% in the second half of the year.
"If the sales continue to decline, or do not have material impact from the policy easing, then we may continue to see the price decline here."
Leading developer Country Garden is scrambling to avoid default and fears of contagion to other property firms are mounting.
There are concerns developers may struggle to complete projects.
It's not just the cost of borrowing putting buyers off - white-collar workers are taking pay cuts and unemployment is high.
New home prices fell for the fourth month in August, a private survey showed on Friday (September 1).
