(Yicai Global) Feb. 14 -- Those buying homes from China Evergrande Group are entitled to the lowest price from the date of signing a purchase contract until May 10, and the company will thus refund the difference if a residential unit's price falls as a victim of Corvid-19, the nation's largest real estate developer announced yesterday.

The novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has prompted many Chinese localities to suspend commercial property sales offices' and realtors' operations to discourage people from gathering in groups, and many real estate firms have accordingly turned to online marketing, The Paper reported.

Evergrande has also pivoted to sell all its properties nationwide over the internet, and buyers can thus view an offering via virtual reality technology. They need only pay a CNY5,000 (USD716.5) deposit on the company's platform and sign an online subscription form to make an offer on a house from now until Feb. 29, the Shenzhen-based developer said, while pledging that its customers will be able to purchase properties at rock-bottom prices.

Evergrande's shares [HK:3333] closed up 4.3 percent at noon at HKD18.72 (USD2.40) today.

Purchasers also have the right to return a home without cause at any time after signing a sales contract under the firm's no-questions-asked policy.

Evergrande sold about CNY40.55 billion (USD5.8 billion) worth of housing last month, and its contracted sales area was about 4.498 million square meters, according to its performance data. The company's contracted sales amount was about CNY43.2 billion last month, down by about 6 percent from the previous year. It had some 3.9 million square meters of contracted sales area during the period. 

Editor: Ben Armour