AROUND 70 percent of home-owners lowered their asking prices for pre-owned apartments over the past week, while pre-owned housing prices in Futian District saw the largest decline, according to sznews.com

    A report from Centaline Property showed that 46 percent of homeowners lowered their asking prices by 1 to 5 percent last week. The average asking prices in Futian District saw the sharpest drop, at 2 percent, and the price decreases in Yantian, Bao’an and Longhua have been widening.

    A total of 511 new homes were traded last week, for an average price of 55,964 yuan (US$8,111) per square meter, marking a growth of 11.3 percent compared with the previous week.

    Meanwhile, the number of pre-owned apartments being traded increased by 25.2 percent to 869 last week, and the average transaction price reached 51,350 yuan per square meter.

    Two Vanke residential estates in Shenzhen put 2,454 new apartments up for sale last week. The growing trade volume shows that the market is adapting itself to the new property policies, but most buyers are still taking a wait-and-see attitude and they are very sensitive to fluctuations in home prices.

    As the average transaction price of pre-owned housing continues to decline, it’s not very likely that the market will bounce back in a short time, according to the report. (Zhang Yang)