(Yicai Global) March 28 -- Shenzhen’s preferential housing scheme for highly qualified professionals, which was introduced last year to lure young talent to the hi-tech hub in southern China, is not proving a success and many homes are going unsold despite major discounts.

The scheme offers houses at around 60 percent of the price of other homes in the area, but although there are a large number of applicants, resulting in overdemand, not many properties actually sell.

For example, in the city’s Shentie Xifu residential complex, only 15 percent of the three-bedroom homes on offer actually sold this year, meaning that just 155 out of the 708 applicants decided to go ahead. And although the 199 apartment units offered at the Anju Tongle Xinyuan development in Nanshan district sold out, almost 300 applicants dropped out at the last minute. This year there are 8,510 houses from 11 projects on offer.

Last year, less than half of the 4,422 properties available in the scheme sold at 1,930 homes, even though 14,810 people qualified to apply

People who buy the discounted housing in Shenzhen under this scheme are not allowed to sell it for the next 10 years and they are probably afraid that the value will drop, said Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning Institute’s housing policy research center. This may partly explain the lukewarm reaction from the public, he added.

If the policy had been offered five or 10 years ago, all the available properties would have sold out quickly, but today’s market is very different and buyers are not that optimistic anymore, he said.

People eligible for Shenzhen’s preferential housing scheme for professionals must be aged over 35, must not already have bought a property through the program, need to have made social security contributions to the city for at least three years and must hold at least a bachelor’s degree or other certificate recognized by the local government.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor