China Tall Tower Builder Assures Quality Amid Sand Scandal – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | March 20, 2013

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• China Tall Tower Builder Assures Quality Amid Sand Scandal

  China State Construction Engineering Corp. (601668), which is building the country’s tallest tower, said materials used in all its projects meet quality standard as the southern city of Shenzhen conducted inspections on builders.

  Samples from buildings, including the 660-meter Ping An Finance Center due to be completed in 2015, were tested, according to Shenzhen’s Housing and Construction Bureau. The industrywide inspection in the city last week followed a China Central Television newscast on March 14 that investigated the use of substandard concrete by some developers in Shenzhen that used low-quality sea sand instead of river sand.

• China Home Prices Up in Most Cities, Posing Policy Challenge
  

  China’s new home prices posted the broadest advance since December 2011, a test for new Premier Li Keqiang as he seeks to prevent a bubble without damping economic growth.

  Prices climbed in 62 cities of the 70 the government tracks in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. Beijing prices jumped 5.9 percent from a year earlier, the biggest since February 2011, while they advanced 8.1 percent in Guangzhou, the most since January 2011.

• Home prices rise nationwide despite restrictions

  Average month-on-month new home prices across the nation’s 70 major cities skyrocketed in February, official data released Monday showed, intensifying pressure on China’s newly elected government to rein in the property sector.

  Of the 70 large- and medium-sized cities surveyed by the National Bureau of Statistics, 66 saw an increase in new home prices in February over the previous month, with Guangzhou registering the sharpest growth rate of 3.1 percent, the bureau said Monday. In January, month-on-month prices jumped in 53 cities.

• New Zealand Real Estate Agent Enters South China

  New Zealand real estate agent Harcourts days ago declared its foray into the Shenzhen market.

  Harcourts, founded in 1888 in Wellington, capital city of New Zealand, has marketing network covering 38 countries and territories such as the US, Canada and England as well as more than 7,000 branches and over 170,000 experienced promotion and management experts, being the biggest real estate agent in South Pacific and New Zealand. In 2008, the company established Chinese headquarters in Shanghai.

• Department stores flourish in China and retail sales double

  Department stores are flourishing in China despite increasing competition from other formats and channels, according to new research from Mintel.

  Reflecting the increased wealth of Chinese consumers, and the increased disposable income this has brought with it, Mintel’s research reveals China’s department store retail market doubled in value in the last six years, from RMB 315 billion in 2007, to RMB 683 billion in 2012. Its supermarkets and hypermarkets sector grew by almost the same, from RMB 527 billion in 2007 to RMB 1.109 billion in 2012.

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