(Yicai Global) Feb. 7 -- Housing sales are picking up significantly in popular Chinese tourist destinations Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern Yunnan province and Beihai in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, after the recent relaxation in pandemic prevention measures brought a big influx of tourists during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday last month.

“Sales of properties in Xishuangbanna have been ‘overheated’ since the beginning of the Chinese New Year break on Jan. 21,” an executive at a leading Chinese real estate developer, who is in charge of marketing in the lush tropical paradise, told Yicai Global. 

Unsurprisingly, many of Xishuangbanna’s property developments have hiked their prices considerably since the holiday. The average price of a new home has jumped to between CNY7,000 (USD1,000) and CNY7,500 per square meter from between CNY6,000 and CNY6,500 a sqm before the break, the person said.

However, the higher price is not denting the enthusiasm of buyers, who are mainly from the chilly north of the country, he added.

Popular projects have seen around 30 to 40 houses a day changing hands since the break, inking between CNY10 million (USD1.4 million) and CNY20 million of contracts per project each day, when before the holiday we were lucky to shift three or four units, he said.

One of our hottest developments logged turnover of CNY300 million (USD44.2 million) last month. Over 60 percent of the properties were bought by people who live in the northeast of the country, he added.

And in Beihai, an attractive seaside city located in the Beibu Gulf, real estate sales have surged by as much as 60 percent, another marketing executive who works at one of the country’s top three developers told Yicai Global. We have been penning around seven to 10 housing deals a day since the Lunar New Year holiday.

Almost half of the sales, at 46 percent, are by locals, 8 percent are by people from northern Hebei province, which neighbors Beijing, and the rest are from other parts of China, such as northwestern Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, as well as southwestern Sichuan province and the municipality of Chongqing, he added.

But despite the big jump in sales, prices have not risen much, he said. At the moment, property prices are pretty much what they were before, and have only increased by 1 to 2 percent in some places.

“The darkest hour is over,” the executive said. Nevertheless, those responsible for real estate marketing in Xishuangbanna and Beihai are staying prudently optimistic about the future, as they are uncertain whether sales will continue to do well.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor