"In the first quarter of this year, overall transaction conditions fell short of expectations, with both developers and homebuyers showing low enthusiasm for entering the market. However, price cuts in some cities did not broadly affect new project pricing, and there is room for further increases in commodity housing sales prices across the 30 cities," Yan Yuejin, a researcher at E-House, told reporters.

 

　　In fact, on April 17, the Shanghai (property project) E-House Real Estate Research Institute released the "Q1 2014 Commodity Housing Transaction Structure Report." The report noted that in the first quarter, the property markets of 30 cities showed a trend of falling volume and rising prices. Data showed that the commodity housing transaction area in 30 typical cities in the first quarter was 38.54 million square meters, down 33.8% quarter-on-quarter and 25.0% year-on-year; the average commodity housing transaction price was 10,833 yuan per square meter, up 3.1% quarter-on-quarter and 0.5% year-on-year.

 

　　In addition, the first-quarter commodity housing transaction areas in 30 typical first-, second-, and third-tier cities were 6.76 million square meters, 26.11 million square meters, and 5.67 million square meters, respectively, with quarter-on-quarter declines of 34.6%, 32.2%, and 39.8%, and year-on-year declines of 41.1%, 19.9%, and 22.7%; average transaction prices were 22,854 yuan per square meter, 8,300 yuan per square meter, and 8,171 yuan per square meter, respectively, with quarter-on-quarter increases of 5.2%, 0.3%, and 11.2%, and year-on-year increases of 16.1%, 0.3%, and 2.4%.

 

　　Yan Yuejin believes that the pace of housing price increases has slowed and transaction volume has begun to decline sharply, with clear signs of a cooling market, but housing prices in first-tier cities remain firm.

 

　　It is worth noting that among the above 30 typical cities, the Hangzhou (property project) property market had dismal sales. According to statistics from the research department of Centaline Property, Hangzhou's first-quarter transaction volume shrank significantly, with total citywide transactions of only 10,518 units, a quarter-on-quarter decline of 94% and a year-on-year decline of 37%.

 

　　In addition, Hangzhou has huge potential supply. In 2013, the total scale of residential land transfers including suburban areas was nearly 14 million square meters, with transfer proceeds as high as 100.3 billion yuan. Future supply is expected to be very large, and sales pressure will increase accordingly.

 

　　In this regard, Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at Centaline Property, told the Securities Daily reporter that developers with projects in Hangzhou face enormous sales pressure, and the trend of comprehensive adjustment is very obvious. Zhang Dawei further stated that in fact, third- and fourth-tier cities have oversupply and high inventory pressure, among which the digestion period for sellable area in places such as Qingdao (property project) and Fuzhou (property project) is expected to exceed 12 months.

 

　　Some industry insiders also said that Hangzhou, as the first second-tier city to show a clear signal of price cuts, will have a very large impact on homebuyers' psychology. Although it is currently still scattered, it is hard to say it will not gradually appear in clusters.