Prices of pre-owned apartments in Shenzhen fell by an average of 11.7 percent in October, as more investors adopted a wait-and-see attitude after the government's efforts to cool down the market.

According to property agency Centaline Shenzhen, a total of 2,800 pre-owned apartments were sold in the past month in the whole city, 24.5 percent less than in September. The average price of the transactions was 13,362 yuan (US$1,782) per square meter, down 11.5 percent from September.

Bao'an District recorded the biggest price drop of 42.9 percent, due to a remarkable fall in transactions of luxury properties, which dragged the average price of pre-owned apartments down to 9,228 yuan per square meter. Futian District witnessed a fall of 20 percent, followed by Yantian District at 17.1 percent. But pre-owned housing prices in Nanshan, Luohu and Longgang district rose 6 percent, 3.9 percent and 4 percent respectively since September, due to an increasing number of transactions of luxury homes.

Bao'an District showed the largest drop in transactions with a 60 percent slump in September, followed by Yantian District at 45 percent, Nanshan District at 29 percent, Luohu District at 20 percent and Futian District at 17 percent.

Insiders said investors were acting more rationally than they had in the months of July and August, when the sizzling real estate market was at its peak.

"They (investors) now show less resolution when making decisions, which creates more room for bargain," an anonymous analyst was cited by the Southern Metropolis Daily as saying yesterday.

Wang Ming, a resident of Bao'an District, was pleased at the price drops.

"Buying a home of my own has been a dream I have cherished for years. But I was frightened by rocketing prices," he said. "But to my happiness, prices for my neighborhood housing fell by 350,000 yuan in three months. I would like to wait for more drops."

Pre-owned housing prices slumped in most cities in the Pearl River Delta region in October, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou and Zhuhai. Zhongshan was the only exception, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily. No reasons were given.

Meanwhile another development, property prices of new homes in China's 70 large and medium cities jumped by 9.5 percent year-on-year in October, despite a down-payment hike for those buying their second apartments, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said last week.

The growth rate is 0.6 percentage points higher than that of September, which also saw accelerated growth.

Sale prices of new residential apartments rose by 10.6 percent year-on-year. Ningbo, Urumqi and Beijing led the price hike, with average rises of 19.1 percent, 18.5 percent and 17.8 percent.

China in September raised the down payment for property mortgage loans to 40 percent for those buying second apartments. Also, the interest rate for mortgage loans taken out by buyers of second apartments increased to 1.1 times the benchmark one-year lending rate.

On Nov. 8, the NDRC and the Ministry of Commerce jointly released revised industry guidelines for foreign investments, adding constraints on foreign investment in real estate brokerages and existing housing transactions.  

Editor: Donald