APARTMENT sales at one Long-hua New Area estate got the rock-star treatment Saturday, with the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center rented out for a “concert-like” sales event that led to the estates’ entire 1,600 apartments selling out in six hours.

    The apartments were sold with an estimated turnover of up to 6 billion yuan (US$942 million), according to a report on ThePaper.cn.

    “I’ve never seen so many homebuyers attending a sales event in the past decade,” the estate’s spokesperson said, adding that it’s rare for property developers to rent a stadium for an estate’s opening.

    The estate was developed by Horoy Holdings Limited, a Shenzhen-based property company. Starting from 7:30 a.m., hundreds of homebuyers lined up outside the sports center. They entered the sports center at 10 a.m. and started choosing apartments by drawing lots.

    The spokesperson said an estimated 11,000 people attended the event, while the average price of the apartments for sale, mostly with two to four rooms, was about 43,500 yuan per square meter.

    “We initially planned to sell 700 apartments through the event, but the huge number of homebuyers made the company put up all 1,637 apartments up for sale. They were all sold out at around 4 p.m.,” he said.

    The spokesperson said the housing market in Longhua New Area has high demand, and the estate’s developer has set reasonable prices that were appealing to homebuyers.

    “The price of some pre-owned apartments near this estate reached 50,000 yuan per square meter. New estates in the area are in short supply,” he said.

    The spokesperson said although the city’s housing demand in the third quarter slid, it’s still higher than the same period in previous years. An industry insider said the housing price in Longhua New Area was about 30,000 yuan per square meter at the beginning of this year, but it skyrocketed over the past six months.

    Centaline Property’s data shows that 5,585 new apartments in Shenzhen were sold last month, with a trading volume 38 percent higher than in September. The average sales price was 33,500 yuan per square meter, dropping by 7.2 percent compared with prices in September.

    Wang Fei, the chief research officer of the Centaline Property, said home sales are expected to recover in the fourth quarter, and some property developers may lower the prices to increase sales.(Zhang Yang)