Chinese developers are counting on the upcoming Golden Week holiday period to spark a long-awaited revival in home sales, in the first key test of whether recent policy support is enough to arrest the slump.
The eight-day national holiday starting Friday is the center point of the industry’s September-October busy season. The stakes are higher than ever this year, as the housing slowdown weighs on China’s economic recovery and developers that are struggling to refinance rely on cash from sales to meet debt obligations.
"Property sales this year have been very lackluster, so for most developers accelerating transactions in the two months will be especially crucial,” said Zhang Hongwei, founder of Jingjian Consulting, which advises real estate companies. "Otherwise, they will need to take a bigger hit to push for better sales toward the year end.”