Nanjing's real estate market in the area north of the river was suddenly hit by a wave of price cuts yesterday. The large-scale real estate market north of the Yangtze River, which has always been at the forefront of Nanjing's development and sales volume, suddenly made a bold move! Following the launch of a fixed-price offer of 4500 yuan/square meter for over 300 units by the Xuri Shangcheng housing project, Suning Properties also introduced a fixed-price strategy for its three housing projects in North Qiao: the Tianrun City project set a fixed price of 4088 yuan/square meter for 350 units, which is about 600 yuan/square meter cheaper than before.
The continuous discounting and promotion of housing projects in North Qiao raises questions: Does their collective price drop indicate that housing prices north of the river can no longer hold up? Is this a sign of an overall decline in Nanjing's housing prices?
[Price Drop] Three more housing projects introduce fixed-price units
The super-large scale Tianrun City project, which offered a surprising fixed price of 4088 yuan/square meter, has a total of 350 special-priced units scattered across the project. Interestingly, two other housing projects in the same Jiangbei Bridge North area also implemented fixed prices: the Venetian Water City offered a uniform price of 4480 yuan/square meter for 150 units, while the Tianhua Green Valley offered a uniform price of 4188 yuan/square meter for 50 units. However, it was learned that these two projects have strict restrictions on the floors of the units, such as Project B targeting only the first and top floors, and Project C targeting the first six floors of high-rise buildings and the first and sixth floors of low-rise buildings.
In total, the 550 special-priced units account for a significant proportion of the available units for sale. According to data from Nanjing Online Real Estate, these three projects currently have a total of 3360 available units for sale. Calculations show that the 550 special-priced units account for more than 16% of the total available units.
An industry insider stated that for a major player like Suning in the Bridge North area, 550 units spread across three projects are just a drop in the bucket. However, considering the current total number of available units, the 16% ratio is relatively large.
Sold to specific groups? Sales office says anyone can buy
Interestingly, Suning Properties' unified statement yesterday was that the 550 units across the three projects were specifically selected to express social gratitude and care, targeting provincial and municipal model workers, advanced workers, military personnel, and others who have contributed to society.
However, when reporters inquired with the three projects yesterday, the sales staff all indicated there were no such restrictions, and buyers could purchase normally.
Why is the developer being so secretive? An industry insider speculated that the developer might be worried that previous buyers would feel they had bought at a loss and demand refunds.
[Citizen Reaction] Reasons for both those who want to buy and those who don't
Citizen Mr. Shi said that if the fixed-price discounts were only for the first and top floors, it wouldn't mean much. However, he noticed that some fixed-price offers weren't exclusively for the first and top floors; for example, Project C also offered fixed-price discounts for high-rise units on the 1st to 6th floors. Units on the 4th and 5th floors priced at 4480 yuan/square meter could be considered.
Nevertheless, Mr. Shi also believed that compared to the prices he had been following, these fixed-price units were several hundred yuan cheaper per square meter, and with over five or six hundred units involved, the scope of the price reduction was quite broad. He decided to visit the projects over the weekend.
However, some citizens are unmoved by the price drops in the northern Jiangsu housing market. Citizen Ms. Lu said that she recently took a bus to check out properties in the north but got stuck in traffic for over two hours on the bridge. By the time she reached the project site, she had lost all motivation. She worries that living there with such poor transportation conditions would be inconvenient. Even though prices have dropped significantly, she remains hesitant and will not consider buying property in the north for now.
[Industry Analysis] Bridge North's goal of breaking through the 5000 yuan barrier shattered
Real estate projects north of the river last year aimed to break the 5000 yuan mark, but now it seems they've returned to their original state. Vice President Shi Dong of Nanjing Wangshang Real Estate Research Institution analyzed that from an average transaction price of less than 3500 yuan/square meter in February last year, struggling to maintain around 4500 yuan/square meter now, clearly shows the failure to break through 5000 yuan/square meter.
This can also be seen from the comparison of sales volumes in the same period: in February this year, the sales volume of housing projects in Pukou dropped by 74% month-on-month, putting pressure on developers.
According to predictions by Wangshang Real Estate Research Institution, this year, new listings of commercial residential properties in the north of the river will reach 3.313 million square meters (slightly higher than 3.21 million square meters in 2007). Among them, newly approved listings amount to 2.865 million square meters, leading all sectors in Nanjing. This year, the additional supply of residential properties from the 45 ongoing projects in the northern river area will reach 2.8 million square meters. The concentrated and large-scale supply of commercial residential properties will undoubtedly intensify competition in the real estate market of the Bridge North area in the north of the river.