房地产去库存(fangdichan qu kucun): Reducing unsold homes

Both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have talked about the real estate industry on different occasions in the past month, and have given clear signals that will seek to reduce the number of unsold homes.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, till the end of October there were 68,632 square meters of residential housing for sale. This high inventory is a sign of the real estate industry's poor performance recently, which has affected China's economic growth down.

Experts estimate that a policy adjustment in the real estate industry is likely in the near future, and new measures may be introduced to support the real estate industry.

It is expected that the priority will be third- and fourth-tier cities that have a high inventory of housing, because they face huge pressure in reducing their unsold homes.

Helping the real estate industry to destock will not only help economic growth, it will also promote people-oriented urbanization and encourage migrant workers to settle down in the cities by providing adequate housing facilities.

(China Daily 11/26/2015 page8)