If recent land auctions across China are anything to go by, then Beijing’s efforts to cool the country’s sizzling residential property market are finally beginning to work after a year of moral suasion and threats to local governments, banks and developers.
For some, including China’s cash-strapped local authorities, they may be working too well.
The average transaction price for land sales across the country fell 32 per cent in April from a month earlier and has dropped 51 per cent since the start of the year, according to government data published by Credit Suisse. In some cases, local government land auctions have failed as bids fell short of the minimum level required.