China's property market seems destined for better days in 2013

FOR more than a week, real estate broker Jack Sun seldom got home from work before 11:30pm. He's not complaining. After a tough 2011 in an uncertain market, the 25-year-old has reason for renewed confidence.

Sun works for Tospur, one of China's leading property research and brokerage houses. He's been working more than 12 hours a day since late November on pre-launch preparations for a commercial title apartment project in the heart of one of the city's major residential communities beyond the Outer Ring Road.

"The market feedback seems good, and the majority of people who have expressed interest in this project are local residents," Sun told Shanghai Daily before the project's official kickoff on December 8. "A lottery will be arranged to decide the priority of home hunters in selecting units."

Most of the units are about 60 square meters in size, costing less than 800,000 yuan (US$127,186). The project, a joint development by China Vanke Co and COFCO Property (Group) Co, mainly targets young people on tight budgets and those who would like to invest in property but are currently banned from involvement in residential title developments.

The distinction between residential and commercial titles has become important in the continuing environment of the government's curbs on property speculation.

Commercial title, which falls under the more commonly used category of "serviced apartment," has an ownership tenure of up to 50 years, compared with the normal 70 years under the traditional "residential title" units. Utility fees at the commercial title units are usually more expensive. Because the properties are categorized as "commercial" rather than "residential," they can be bought without restrictions.

Distinctions aside, there have been clear signs that sentiment is improving in the overall housing market in recent months, both in existing and new homes.

New home purchases in Shanghai in November, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 12 percent from a month earlier to 981,500 square meters, remaining above 800,000 square meters for the seventh straight month, according to Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co. Year-on-year, the gain represented a growth of nearly 100 percent.

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