Shanghai: At the end of a week in which China's leaders announced their biggest economic stimulus measures in years, real estate agents in financial hub Shanghai expressed cautious optimism at policies intended to encourage home buying. Chief among the threats to the government's goal of hitting five percent growth in 2024 is a prolonged property sector crisis, which has so far resisted incremental efforts at resolution. At a meeting of the Communist Party's top decision-making body on Thursday, leaders said they would loosen restrictions on buying houses, lower interest rates on existing mortgages and generally "promote the construction of a new model for real estate development", according to state media.
That was welcome news to those working in Shanghai's property market. "Especially since last year, the real estate market environment has dropped a lot," Tao Yuan, an agent in Shanghai's former French Concession, told AFP. "The city centre here has dropped a lot, and the whole country has declined a lot too.
.. The main reason is that the economic environment is not good.
" He said he had followed the week's announcements with interest. "In our first-tier cities, especially in Shanghai, if they liberalise purchase restrictions, I think there'll be a big wave in this market," he said. Realtor Mary Yang told AFP: "Six months ago, there was perhaps a lot of evidence people were just waiting and seeing.
"I think that maybe the Chinese market will go up steadily after October -- .
