According to recent figures from the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics, property prices in Wenzhou are on the decline. In fact, in some developments, homes are selling for half as much now as they were last year. To lure in buyers as prices sag, some property firms are asking for just a 20 percent down payment, well below the up-front sum many firms demanded in the past.
But while lower down payments may attract some potential buyers, they won't be enough to lift the city's home market out of its deepening rut.
Such a strategy will, if anything, just allow developers to reduce their inventory; it won't do anything to bring demand, or prices, back up to where they were in the past - at least not any time soon.
With home sales and price trends in Wenzhou often regarded as a bellwether for the rest of China, if the recent crash in the city's home market portends what's in store for elsewhere, the fate of developers nationwide is not looking promising.
The author is Jiang Debin, an economic commentator.
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