(Yicai Global) April 12 -- Housing transactions in cities around Shenzhen jumped last month as property sales in the southern Chinese metropolis surged to a two-year high.

Some 9,400 new homes were sold in Huizhou, a city northeast of Shenzhen, in March, an increase of 70 percent from the month before, Securities Times reported yesterday, citing data from the research institute of online property platform Leyoujia.

The Shenzhen market has been heating up because of the surge in buyers from Hong Kong and Macao after their borders with the Chinese mainland fully reopened. More than 12,000 homes were sold in Shenzhen last month, a two-year record.

Sales of newly-built homes in Dongguan, situated between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, jumped 40 percent to 3,152 in March from the prior month, Leyoujia researchers noted. The second-hand housing market also picked up, as nearly 3,770 pre-owned apartments changed hands, a 65 percent surge from February to the most in 14 months.

Between 2018 and 2020, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Dongguan were the top five Chinese mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area where residents from the two special administrative regions preferred to buy houses, according to data from Leyoujia’s research arm.

Editor: Futura Costaglione