Nanfang Daily, Nanfang Plus:

Since the beginning of this year, measures to stabilize the property market have been continuously introduced. How do you assess the property market's performance in the first half of this year? What positive changes have occurred? Thank you.

Sheng Laiyun:

Since the beginning of this year, all regions and departments have implemented the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee to promote the stabilization of the property market, and have introduced relevant measures based on the specific conditions of each city. Statistical data shows that the effects of relevant policy measures are evident. Although the real estate market experienced some fluctuations in the first half of the year, it has generally moved toward stabilizing and reversing its decline. From the perspective of policy effects, it is mainly reflected in three aspects:

First, market transaction volumes have improved, with the decline in commercial housing sales narrowing compared to the same period last year. In the first half of the year, the sales area of newly built commercial housing nationwide declined 3.5% year on year, narrowing by 15.5 percentage points compared with the same period last year and 9.4 percentage points compared with the whole of last year. Commercial housing sales revenue fell 5.5%, with an even greater narrowing, shrinking 19.5 percentage points compared with the same period last year and 11.6 percentage points compared to the full year last year. The commercial housing market remains relatively active, with second-hand housing transaction volumes increasing compared with the same period last year.

Second, the overall decline in market prices has narrowed, with prices rising in some cities. Today, we've also released housing price data for 70 large and medium-sized cities in June. From this price data, it can be seen that although the sales prices of newly built commercial housing in first-, second- and third-tier cities have fluctuated, the year-on-year decline has narrowed. The data shows that the year-on-year decline in the sales prices of newly built commercial housing narrowed by 0.3 percentage point in first-tier cities, 0.5 percentage point in second-tier cities and 0.3 percentage point in third-tier cities compared with the previous month.

Third, funding sources for the property market have improved. Driven by the "white list" mechanism and the real estate market recovery, debt reduction by real estate enterprises is progressing in an orderly manner. In the first half of the year, the decline in funds available to real estate developers narrowed by 16.4 percentage points compared with the same period last year and by 10.8 percentage points compared with the full year last year. Domestic loans increased 0.6% year on year, whereas domestic loans had decreased by about 6% in the previous year. Efforts to reduce inventory have also been effective. At the end of June, the area of commercial housing for sale nationwide decreased by 4.79 million square meters compared with the end of May, marking the fourth consecutive month of decline.

Therefore, these three positive developments indicate that macroeconomic real estate policies have had a relatively significant impact. Of course, we must also recognize that both the sales area and value of commercial housing are currently declining. The bottoming out of the real estate market requires time, and it is normal for related indicators to fluctuate during this adjustment and transition phase. This also requires us to make greater efforts to promote the stabilization of the real estate market. Thank you.