(Yicai Global) Oct. 12 -- Shanghai residents became less willing to buy housing in the third quarter, resulting in the largest quarterly drop ever, amid expectations of declining prices.

The willingness index dived 31.5 points from the second quarter while decreasing by 20.2 points from a year earlier, according to the Shanghai Social and Economic Index Series, compiled by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

The three-month decline was the biggest since the index series, China's first urban social and economic index series published by a university, was launched in October 2007.

During the third quarter, the home purchase expectation index in the eastern city stood at 61.6 points, down 25.7 points from the second quarter and 12.3 points lower than a year ago.

Respondents adjusted their judgments amid changes in the property market, said Xu Guoxiang, professor at the Shanghai Social Survey and Research Center in the SUFE. Housing prices are predicted to decline particularly in smaller cities amid the country's tightening regulation targeting real estate firms.

Shanghai-based consumers who believe it is a good time to buy housing made up 16.2 percent of all participants, down from 26.8 percent from a quarter earlier, according to the survey. The figure had been 23.9 percent in the third quarter of 2020.

The share of those who said it is not a good time to buy housing climbed to 63.6 percent of all, rising from 42.8 percent from the second quarter. The portion had been 51.1 percent a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of people sitting on the fence was getting smaller. The share of people who said it is neither a good or bad time to buy housing was 20.2 percent in the third quarter, falling by 10.2 percentage points from a quarter earlier.

Consumers were looking elsewhere. People's willingness to buy durable goods increased to the highest level of this year at 107.8 points in the third quarter, up 9.7 points from the second quarter and 4.8 points higher than a year ago, suggesting recovering consumer demand.

One of people's first big post-Covid purchases may be a car. Respondents' willingness to buy vehicles rose to 94.6 points, up 10.6 points from a year earlier but down 1.8 points from the second quarter.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi