2024.0402

Number of words in this article:2357, reading time is about 5 minutes

introduction：外地购房者忙看房，杭州房东忙挂牌。

** Author| ** First Finance Ma Yifan

There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. On March 14 this year, after Hangzhou announced the complete abolition of purchase restrictions on second-hand houses, the qualifications for purchasing houses in the core area of this famous Jiangnan landscape city, accompanied by its educational, commercial and medical resources, were opened to all interested cash-holding buyers across the country.
For a time, Hangzhou's second-hand housing market became active again. According to data from the Hangzhou Shell Research Institute, the number of second-hand houses online signed in Hangzhou reached 8557 in March, a month-on-month increase of 236%; the number of intermediaries increased by 224% month-on-month, setting a record for the highest monthly number in the past four years.
While foreigners are busy rushing to Hangzhou to see and buy houses, a group of Hangzhou landlords are also taking advantage of the policy heat to list and sell their houses. The number of new second-hand houses listed in March increased by 147% compared with February. At present, Hangzhou's property market is still in the stage of "value-for-volume", and the number of listed houses at reduced prices far exceeds that of high-price houses.

Foreign tourists plan to go to Hangzhou to buy houses

Xiao Ke, who has a budget of 5 million yuan and works in Pudong, Shanghai, suddenly changed his original plan to buy a house in the suburbs of Shanghai. Another plan was being planned in his mind-to buy a house in Hangzhou.
Xiao Ke's change came from a piece of news he had previously seen:On March 14, Hangzhou re-launched the property market to relax the new policy and fully liberalize the purchase restriction of second-hand houses. Buying second-hand houses in Hangzhou will no longer be reviewed for the qualifications of buyers.
After graduating from college, Xiao Ke has worked in Shanghai for more than five years. Currently, he has paid Shanghai social security but has no Shanghai nationality. His child was born last year and wanted to buy a house early, but seeing that housing prices were in a downward stage, he continued to wait and see.
Why did you have the idea of buying a house in Hangzhou? Xiao Ke told reporters that the main reason is to consider the issue of children studying in the future. With his current purchase budget, if he wants to buy a community with a better environment in Shanghai, he can only buy one in areas such as the five major new cities outside the Outer Ring Road. The school district conditions are average, and because he has not settled down, if there are many students enrolled in the school in the future, he will encounter adjustments; and with the same purchase budget, he can buy a school district house in a first-class school in the city center in Hangzhou and enjoy the top educational resources in Zhejiang Province. In addition, I am originally from Zhejiang and have many relatives and friends developing in Hangzhou, so I am quite familiar with the situation in Hangzhou.
Xiao Ke told reporters that after Hangzhou completely abolished the purchase restriction of second-hand houses, there were many people like him who worked in Shanghai but wanted to buy a house in Hangzhou. They organized Group chats on a certain online social platform to discuss strategies for buying a house in Hangzhou and the ranking of Hangzhou's various school districts.
"According to my observation, most of the people who plan to go to Hangzhou to buy a house are young people who have just worked in Shanghai. The budget for buying a house is only two to three million yuan, and they want to 'get on the bus' as soon as possible. In Shanghai, they either consider 'old and poor' or have to consider Lingang, and once you broaden your ideas to the Hangzhou market, you will have more options." Xiao Ke said.
At present, Xiao Ke has consulted many second-hand housing agencies, targeted several school district housing units, and plans to use the Qingming Festival holiday to go to Hangzhou to see houses.
Wang Meng, who has worked in Hangzhou for more than ten years, already has a Hangzhou house under her name. However, she recently joined the house viewing team. The goal this time is to find a suitable second-hand house for her parents.
Wang Meng is from Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. In 2018, she participated in a popular "new house auction". The winning rate was less than 20%. As a result, she won and chose the house she wanted. Now that she has her own house, Wang Meng still has a big stone in her heart-her parents only have her, the only child. When their parents retire, they will also want to come to Hangzhou to retire.
"Three years ago, our plan was to wait for our parents to retire and let them buy a small commercial and residential apartment near my home. In 2021, we have seen several commercial apartment projects, but the results are quite popular and the prices are on the high side. High, we didn't sell it at the time."
Wang Meng told reporters that now that the purchase restrictions on second-hand houses in Hangzhou have been completely cancelled, parents can buy houses in Hangzhou's Main City in their own names. Moreover, the price of second-hand houses in Hangzhou has dropped a lot compared to the peak period. After calculation, it is much more cost-effective than buying commercial and residential apartments three years ago. "My parents are retiring this year, so I have been busy looking at second-hand houses recently."
Hangzhou has been known for its beautiful landscape environment and strong commercial atmosphere since ancient times. After the purchase restrictions on second-hand houses have been completely lifted, more and more foreign buyers are being welcomed. According to local media reports in Hangzhou, a Hangzhou luxury business agency said that in the two weekends after the new policy was introduced, the number of foreign customers it received increased significantly, including customers from Yiwu, Wenzhou, Ningbo and other places in the province, as well as customers from Shanghai and even China Taiwan. The signing centers of several large intermediary agencies have experienced crowded passenger flow.

The number of visitors has reached a new high in four years

Half a month after Hangzhou fully liberalized the purchase restriction of second-hand housing, what is the market situation? Transaction data can better reflect the overall situation.
According to data from the Hangzhou Shell Research Institute, the number of second-hand houses online in Hangzhou reached 8557 in March, an increase of 236% month-on-month (2543 units). The average price was 29767 yuan/square meter, an increase of 2% month-on-month. The average residential price stopped falling, but fell year-on-year. 7%. The number of residential units sold by intermediaries in the city was 5971, an increase of 289% from February (1533 units).
To put it more specifically, in the first week of March this year, the single-day transaction volume of second-hand houses in Hangzhou was basically below 200 units. In the second week, transaction data began to pick up, and the daily transaction volume stood at the level of 200 units. After the new policy was introduced on March 14, the transaction data of second-hand houses increased significantly, and the single-day transaction volume gradually exceeded 300 units.
The total number of second-hand housing transactions in March was basically the same as the data in November 2023. At that time, Hangzhou introduced the "10.16 New Property Market Policy", which reduced the housing purchase restriction areas from the previous nine districts to four Main City, which also triggered a surge in transaction volume over a period of time.
However, although there was a new policy on the property market in March this year, the data of "Xiaoyangchun" in March last year fell significantly. In March last year, the transaction volume of second-hand houses in Hangzhou exceeded 10,000 units, and this year's transaction volume dropped by more than 20% year-on-year.
Although no property market policy was introduced before the "Xiaoyangchun" property market in Hangzhou last year, it was the first "gold three and silver four" after the three-year epidemic ended. The backlog of demand for home purchases affected by the epidemic broke out. Since then, even though Hangzhou relaxed purchase restrictions twice, It still cannot reach the March 2023 high in second-hand housing transactions.
According to shell statistics, the number of agency band watches increased by 224% month-on-month and 39% year-on-year in March this year. The number of band watches in March this year was the highest monthly number in the past four years, which means that market activity is rising., high-band watch is expected to transform into online signings in the coming months.
After the introduction of the New Deal, more landlords have chosen to list their houses for sale."Buy on Hand" data shows that by the end of March, the number of residential listings in Hangzhou has reached 158,700, and 210,000 were on sale by major institutions. Among them, more than 35,000 houses have been reduced at price, and only 1341 houses have increased prices. Shell data shows that as of the end of March, the number of second-hand housing units in Hangzhou was 153,000 units. The number of new listings in March increased by 147% from February and 3% year-on-year in March.
Shangguan Jian, president of the Hangzhou Shell Research Institute, believes that Hangzhou's property market is currently in a state of extreme polarization between "ice and fire"-while performing a red trend while selling at discounts and prices. The transaction volume of 8557 second-hand housing units in March was relatively moderate,"Xiaoyangchun" reported on time, but trading price for volume is an important reason for the current increase in market transaction volume. Shangguan Jian expects that the transaction volume of Hangzhou's property market will be more stable in the second quarter, the overall transaction volume will be better than the first quarter, and the transaction volume of second-hand houses will remain at a high level and continue to "exchange price for volume".
(At the request of interviewees, Xiao Ke and Wang Meng are both pseudonyms in the article)

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