(Yicai Global) Feb. 19 -- Suzhou, the city in China's eastern Jiangsu province renowned for its classical gardens, relaxed its land auction regulations today by easing the pre-sale conditions for residential projects after completion to help tackle the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic on the real estate market.

Projects built on residential land that exceed the market guidance price at auction will no longer require the building to be roofed before applying for a pre-sale permit, according to a document issued by the Suzhou Natural Resources and Planning Bureau. For such projects in the first-offer phase of auctions it is not mandatory to apply for a pre-sale permit after building completion and inspection.

As a popular second-tier city, Suzhou has seen its property sector develop quickly in recent years. Projects built on land where the auction price is higher than the market price must apply for pre-sale permits after building is done, and land with quoted 10 percent higher than the market price during auction enters the first-offer phase and projects built on such land must apply for pre-sale permits after the projects are finished and inspected, per the city's earlier policy.

Under the new policy, developers will be more flexible in pre-sales, which will help them increase liquidity and ease their concerns in subsequent land auctions, Yan Yuejin, head of research at Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, told Yicai Global. It reflects Suzhou's aim of cutting project operating costs and accelerating the pace of sales.

The city has also called for the supply of industrial land to be hastened while allowing companies that fail to start or finish projects on schedule because of the virus to apply for extensions or sign supplementary agreements. The winning bidders in land auctions can also defer payment of land transfer fees.

The market for land in China was sluggish last month due to the combined impact of the virus and the Chinese New Year holiday, with 913 plots available in major cities, a 26 percent drop from a year earlier. Property sales also fell in January, and sales of the top 100 developers stood at CNY577.1 billion (USD82.5 billion), down 12.7 percent.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Peter Thomas