In August, 21 cities including Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Shenyang issued over 30 real estate policies to curb the overheated market. A report from the Shell Research Institute suggested that the new housing sales in August in 66 cities across the country continued to decline. According to the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-rural Development, existing housing sales in July fell by more than 80 percent compared to July 2020. In August, it reached a 10-year low with only 2,043 existing home sales, a plunge of 77.28 percent year over year.
The National Daily Business News reported that land sales in 300 cities was 226.4 billion yuan (US$35 billion) in August, a decrease of 17 percent from July and a year over year decrease of 49 percent.
Real estate financing does not look rosy either. There were 62 foreign bonds issued in August, a decrease of 27 from the previous month. The total financing was 57.1 billion yuan (US$8.86 billion), a decrease of 39.8 percent from the previous month and a decrease of 54.2 percent from the same period last year.
Real estate developers are also facing mounting pressure on debt payment. According to the Shell Research Institute, debt maturity of domestic and foreign bonds in August was approximately 119.6 billion yuan (US$18.56 billion), an increase of 3.3 percent from the previous month and 21.2 percent year-on-year. There were 16 bond defaults in August. Seven of those were in real estate when companies failed to pay principal and interest on time.
Source: Epoch Times, September 11, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/9/11/n13226905.htm