Chengdu last week became the latest city to launch a homebuying platform in an effort to make homebuying more transparent and efficient. The capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan province partnered with nearly 30 state-owned and private developers to feature more than 50 projects on a mobile app that allows users to contact developers and track sales.
Such platforms are part of a broader push to revive China’s flagging property sector. Similar initiatives have been rolled out in cities like Suzhou in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, where second-hand listings were included on the apps and physical storefronts were set up to attract buyers. The eastern province of Shandong urged wider adoption of such supermarkets in February, and the city of Weihai unveiled its version last week, with a local bank leading the efforts, bypassing property agents.
“While not a completely new concept, more local governments are accelerating the launch of property supermarkets to better align housing supply and demand,” said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of consultancy E-House China Real Estate Research Institute in Shanghai.
“The main advantage of these centrally managed platforms lies in their trustworthiness and authority, as listings are vetted by local governments to minimise false promotions and reduce the risks of information asymmetry.”
The characteristics of the housing supermarkets vary by region. In some cases, only residents holding a housing voucher – a policy tool that provides subsidies to those relocated under urban redevelopment initiatives – are allowed access. There is no centralised data on how many units have been sold through this method.
The model could help improve transaction efficiency by consolidating information that was previously scattered across unofficial platforms and by bundling services such as mortgage applications, tax support and property registration, Yan said.
