SHENZHEN’S pre-owned home prices grew by 16 percent over the past half year, with the average selling price above 55,000 yuan (US$8,265) per square meter last month, the Shenzhen Evening News reported Friday.

    Data from Centaline Property showed that the selling price of pre-owned housing in Shenzhen was 55,883 yuan per square meter last month on average, climbing by 0.99 percent month on month and increasing by 16 percent compared with December last year.

    The new real estate policies put in place by the city government in late March have shaken up the property market in Shenzhen. Pre-owned housing prices soared by 16.4 percent in the first quarter this year but declined by 0.4 percent in the second quarter.

    An average of 14,120 pre-owned apartments were traded per month before the new policies were introduced, and the trading volume hit a record high of 18,706 apartments in March, but the number dropped by over 60 percent to 5,522 apartments per month after the new policies were put in place.

    Pre-owned housing prices continued growing in the first quarter and peaked at 56,149 yuan per square meter in March, but dropped by 2.39 percent in April, the first time a decline was seen over the past 18 months. The pre-owned home prices bounced back in May and June, with the growth rate below 1 percent.

    According to Centaline Property’s research center, the pre-owned housing market was active because interest rates on housing loans were lowered by banks, and the skyrocketing prices of land being auctioned in Longhua and Guangming new areas recently raised homebuyers’ expectations for pre-owned home prices.

    A total of 4,322 pre-owned apartments were traded last month, up by 15.9 percent compared with May. Centaline Property’s statistics showed that 59 percent of its 98 sample estates saw an upward trend in pre-owned home prices, while 6 percent of these estates saw prices soar by over 10 percent month on month in June.

    Many real estate experts believe the growth of pre-owned home prices will slow in the second half of this year, and homebuyers will enter the market if the prices are reasonable.

    The Centaline Property’s spokesperson said it’s unlikely that the pre-owned housing market will bounce back to the fast-growth it used to see, but it will become more stable and healthier in the second half of this year.

    An average of 9,868 pre-owned apartments were traded per month in the first half of this year, lower than that in the same period in 2009 and 2015, but it was still high compared with previous years, according to the report.

    (Zhang Yang)