(Yicai) Dec. 20 -- After eased property purchase policies were issued, new apartment sales in Beijing significantly increased. However, the Chinese capital city's second-hand home market failed to rebound at the same pace.

The number of new commercial houses sold in Beijing on Dec. 17 alone soared 89 percent to 364 units from the daily average in the past week, achieving a new daily record since the peak during the National Day holiday in October, according to data from Chinese realtor Zhugefang.

On Dec. 14, Beijing and Shanghai introduced new property sales policies, including adjusting the standards for the definition of ordinary residence, lowering the down payment ratios and mortgage rates, thus reducing transaction costs for buyers.

The new policies lowered the purchase threshold and eased pressures for potential customers, encouraging them to see apartments, a staffer at Chinese real estate firm Longfor Group Holdings told Yicai. Before the introduction of the policies, customers who planned to sell their apartments to buy a new one to improve their living conditions were hesitant because they were worried about being unable to sell their existing apartments, the person added.

Visitors for a property project developed by Longfor in Beijing's Fengtai district more than doubled on the weekend of Dec. 17 from the previous one, the staffer said, adding that 12 apartments were sold.

More than 300 groups of visitors showed up at a Longfor project in Shunyi district last weekend, as the developer sold about 20 apartments there, with the figures being at about the same level as during the National Day holiday, the staffer noted.

A project in Beijing's Daxing district developed by Greentown China Holdings had almost 300 groups of visitors last weekend, with over 30 apartments sold, an employee at the real estate developer's project told Yicai. After the new policies, several groups of visitors decided to buy larger apartments, the person said, adding that on-site sales set a new record.

Of the new property projects, those that were put up for sale after the implementation of the new policies benefited the most.

Some 318 apartments of a project in Beijing's Changping district that started sales on Dec. 18 were sold in the first 30 minutes, reaching a total sales volume of CNY1.7 billion (USD239.8 million), Yicai learned. A project in Daxing district that launched on Dec. 16 achieved first-day sales of CNY3.1 billion.

Second-Hand House Market

Second-hand home sales are not as hot as expected. However, there was indeed an improvement to a certain degree, a property agent in Beijing told Yicai. The impact of the policies on the market is yet to be seen, but it is likely that prices will not rise again. 

Sales of second-hand apartments did increase in Beijing after the implementation of the eased policies, the agent noted, adding that the few sales were of apartments that had been on the market for a while, which prices had already been cut at least once.

At present, the market is in a phase of cleaning up stocks of low-priced second-hand apartments, and owners who used the policies to increase prices or refrain from selling are relatively fewer, the agent pointed out.

Yicai learned from a realtor in Beijing that the number of potential second-hand home buyers and sellers visiting for consultancy after Dec. 14 increased significantly, even though most of them did not finalize the transactions.

Buyers still have a say on the local second-hand apartment market, so apartment owners can not raise prices, even after the release of the new policies, a staffer at another leading realtor in Beijing told Yicai.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione