Market picks up in top cities

Staff reporter

The number of homes being marketed at higher prices grew by as much as 260 percent week-on-week in China's top four cities in early October on the back of easing measures by the central government and local authorities.

Data from property platform Zhuge.com showed that a total of 12,612 units in Beijing were priced higher during the week ending October 6, up by 261 percent from the previous week.

Guangzhou followed with 8,768 cases during the week that also overlapped the National Day holidays, up by 231 percent week-on-week.

Shenzhen came third with weekly growth of 245 percent at 5,251 cases.

Shanghai, whose property market is the most resilient among mainland cities, ranked fourth with 2,748 homes asking for higher prices during the period, up by 70 percent week-to-week.

However, the number of deals dropped in the four mega cities during the week.

In Shenzhen, the number of transactions in the primary and secondary markets dropped 46 percent and 81 percent from the week before respectively.

A series of new policies were introduced across China before the National Day holidays, including reductions in down-payment ratios and mortgage rates, to support the sluggish property sector.

As of Sunday, over 20 major mainland banks had announced the details of lower interest rates for outstanding home mortgages, implementing a key supportive measure announced by China's central bank two weeks ago.