Real estate agents feel the pinch
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-27 09:22 "The market is depressed so we hope to increase our share by offering
competitive prices.
"Our business in the last few months has not dropped
a great deal, but in the face of fierce competition and a bearish market we have
to do something to get the upper hand."
At the same time the company has
re-jigged its database to fast track houses which are more than
five-years-old and thus tax free to the top of the sales
list.
In Shanghai, shrinking business is prompting agents to look outside
their traditional areas.
E-House's Zhang Xiaoping told China Daily that
his company is planning to open 75 branches in the second half of the year
covering Suzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu.
"Compared to Shanghai, which has
reached saturation, these smaller cities have less developed estate agency
markets and present us with an ideal opportunity for expansion," he
said.
Agents are also diversifying the types of property they are dealing
with, moving away from the currently unstable second-hand residential
market.
Shanghai Han Yu is looking to focus on partnerships in housing
projects backed by foreign investors and E-House claims its sales of commercial
property increased 90 per cent in May.
The agency is also reported to be
in talks with major developers over the sales rights to three office blocks in
Shanghai.
Agents are publicly hopeful the slump will last only until the
end of the year at most, by which time buyers, sellers, investors and developers
should have become accustomed to the new regulations.
But in a market
that had become so reliant on fast turnovers, how many agents will survive to
see the arrival of the promised dawn is yet to be seen.
Despite
assurances the market is only pausing to refuel before taking off once again,
smaller agents are unlikely to survive as the bigger agencies prove that, when
times are lean, size does matter.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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