(Yicai Global) Aug. 18 -- Appeals made by a number of counties, small and mid-sized cities in China to public servants and their families to buy homes locally will have little impact on reducing housing stocks, according to one expert.

Many local governments are calling on employees to buy property in their areas because sales are slow and housing stocks are high, but demand among civil servants and their relatives is limited, Zhang Bo, director of think tank 58 Anjuke Institute, told Yicai Global.

Since June, Changchun in Jilin province, Huanggang in Hubei province, and Bazhong in Sichuan province have all asked government departments and large businesses to invite their staff to buy homes locally, Yicai Global learned. Dongxihu district in Wuhan, capital of Hubei, sought to spur purchases with a lump sum subsidy of CNY150,000 (USD22,100).

Supply and demand must be taken into consideration to solve the housing stock issue in counties, Zhang said, noting that supply must not increase blindly to develop the real estate market, as housing needs are basically met.

China’s real estate market softened again last month, ending a two-month recovery, as home sales almost halved from June and prices in second- and third-tier cities fell, with no signs yet of easier funding for developers.

Some 92.6 million square meters of residential property were sold last month, down from 181.9 million in June, official data showed on Aug. 15. The value of sales slumped 46 percent to CNY969.1 billion (USD143.3 billion) from CNY1.8 trillion (USD266.1 billion).

In the seven months ended July 31, 781.8 million sqm of housing was sold, down 23 percent from a year earlier, while the value of sales tallied CNY7.6 trillion, a 29 percent slump on the year.

Via WeChat on Aug. 16, Si county in Suzhou, Anhui province, also called on its public servants to urge relatives and friends to buy property. The post was deleted yesterday.

At the opening of a real estate fair the same day, Deng Bo, secretary of the Party committee of Shimen county in Changde, Hunan province, encouraged officials to take the lead in buying houses and urged those who already had one to buy another, according to a video that went viral.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione