The share of respondents planning to buy a property in the next three months surged by 17.5% in the first quarter. Which is also up from 16% in the fourth quarter survey and the highest since the first quarter of 2022, according to the survey released.
The survey also found that the market expectations are improving as respondents’ anticipation has increased by 18.5% in house prices, which is sharply up from 14% as noticed in the fourth quarter and the highest since the third quarter of 2021.
Moreover, the increase follows the end of China’s COVID controls. Central and local governments have also rolled out support for property purchasers and developers in the previous year.
Earlier in the summer of 2022, a number of homebuyers made a decision to not pay their mortgages after COVID and fiscal difficulties kept developers from delivering properties on time. Typically, houses were being purchased ahead of completion in China.
The country’s enormous real estate market, however, collapsed in the previous two years as a result of the central government’s crackdown on developers’ heavy dependence on borrowing for expansion.
More recently, authorities have emphasised the need to help developers finish construction on apartments.
Signs of a real estate turnabout
Apart from the People’s Bank of China, other reports indicate a coming turnaround in China’s real estate market tumble.
In March, property prices climbed for the first time in more than seven months.
According to a study of 100 cities that found the average price per square metre for a new property surged month-on-month by 0.02% to 16,178 yuan ($219 per square foot), stated in a survey released over the weekend by the China Real Estate Index System (CREIS).
However, market trends fluctuated across the country.
In terms of floor space, the CREIS study found that transaction volume in the cities of Hangzhou and Tianjin doubled in the first quarter from the previous year, in comparison to China’s largest cities, which only saw a climb of 0.2%.
Later, property manager JLL said the high-end residential market in Beijing noticed a 20% increase in transaction volume in the first quarter, as compared to the prior quarter.
Most people still prefer to save
Further, the PBOC survey proclaimed that apart from the people obliged to purchase the property, most people were still inclined to save, despite China ending its rigorous COVID protocols in December.
The percentage of respondents who said they chose to save decreased by 3.8 percentage points from the previous quarter to a still high 58% in the first three months of the year.
During the pandemic, people’s preferences to save soared to record highs, the central bank survey showed.
The share of respondents stating that they majorly preferred to spend surged by 0.5 percentage points to 23.2%, according to the first quarter survey.
However, the Education and the Healthcare sector remained by far the most popular spending and investing categories, while travel saw a significant jump from the previous fourth quarter.
Last but not least, the central bank’s quarterly survey covers about 20,000 people with savings deposits, which are spread across 50 cities in China.
- Published By Team Genuine Reporter