Desperate Chinese property developer willing to 'swap wheat for house'

Central China Real Estate

21/06/2022 10:33

By Clare Jim
    HONG KONG, June 21 (Reuters) - A desperate developer in
China's softening property market is coming up with a novel
promotion to attract buyers, recently offering to take wheat and
garlic as down payments. 
    One advertisement of Henan-based Central China Real Estate
 0832.HK  that had "swap wheat for house" in the title says
buyers can use the crop, priced at 2 yuan per catty, a Chinese
unit of mass equal to roughly 500 grams, to offset as much as
160,000 yuan ($23,900.22) of down payment in one of its
developments. 
    A Central China Real Estate sales agent who answered the
phone number on the advertisement said the promotion, aimed
mainly at farmers in the region, started on Monday and will end
on July 10. The development in the central province of Henan
offers houses for around 600,000 to 900,000 yuan, said the agent
who declined to give her name.  
    Central China Real Estate did not respond to a Reuters
request for comment.
    Late last month, another Central China advertisement said
buyers of houses in another development could make down payments
in garlic at 5 yuan per catty.
    The garlic promotion attracted 852 visits and 30
transactions involving 860,000 catties of garlic during the 16
days it was available, the advertisement said. 
    The wholesale market price for both garlic and wheat is 1.5
yuan per 500 grams. 
    Property developers are scrambling to boost sales after a
nosedive in transactions in January to May, as China's strict
COVID-19 curbs combined with worries about a deeper property
correction cloud Beijing's 2022 economic growth target of 5.5%.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2XN23W
    More common promotions by developers include free parking
lots or renovations after purchase.
    Cities across China have introduced hundreds of property
easing measures this year to revive a sector that accounts for a
quarter of the world's second-largest economy's overall output. 
    Such steps include smaller down payments, subsidies and
better terms for households with more than one child.
    Property agents said buyer sentiment is starting to improve
but it was too early to call a turning point because of the many
economic uncertainties China was facing.
    "Some developments are selling quite well. Those are the
ones offering price cuts or promotions," said Andy Lee, chief
executive officer at realtor Centaline China.
    
($1 = 6.6945 Chinese yuan renminbi)

 (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Marius Zaharia and
Christian Schmollinger)
 ((clare.jim@thomsonreuters.com;))