“October 1 Golden Week” appears to be slow for the real estate market compared with last year. The housing closing activities has remained slow since September and were at 50 percent level compared with last year. Some housing compounds in large cities such as Shanghai even had zero transaction month. Take Shenzheng as an example, the slow real estate market has driven 40 percent of the real estate brokerage firms in Shengzheng out of business and almost all the remaining firms are operating at financial lose. Shenzhen held the highest housing price in the nation last August. But a year later in August 2008, the housing price per square meter has dropped from 18,000 yuan to 11,000 and the transaction has been slow since last September.
Source: Jiefang Daily, October 12, 2008
http://www.jfdaily.com/news/xwgn/200810/t20081012_405642.htm