The housing market crisis in China forced real estate companies to come up with new strategies to attract buyers. And from here, watermelon, garlic, peaches become a new way of payment.
According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese real estate companies recently agreed to use watermelons, garlic and peaches as a method of paying part of the rent. This strategy comes in the context of a downturn in the housing market and regulations that do not allow them to reduce direct selling prices.
Specifically, in June, a real estate company in Nanjing launched a program to exchange 5 tons of watermelons to reduce 100,000 yuan in house purchases. In Jiangsu province, buyers can exchange a few tons of peaches to reduce the house price by 188,888 yuan. In particular, Central China Real Estate in Henan has launched a garlic exchange program to reduce house prices by up to 160,000 yuan. Within 22 days, the company sold 30 houses and received 430 tons of garlic. As expected, Central China Real Estate will launch a wheat exchange program in the near future.
And homebuyers in Qi district, the largest garlic-producing area in central China’s Henan province, can sell their produce for three times the market price to pay a portion of their rent. real estate company.
According to SCMP’s research, basically, real estate companies can’t lower the selling price of real estate directly because of legal issues. So they devised a way to reduce prices “indirectly” by buying back fruits and agricultural products at 5 times the market price. For example, the price of watermelons in Nanjing is 2-4 Yuan/kg, but when used to deduct money to buy a house, they will cost 20 Yuan.
In addition to stimulating the housing market, this strategy also directly benefits farmers. A family who specializes in growing garlic said they never imagined how many tons of garlic could be used to pay for a house.
Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s anti-speculation policy, housing prices in 70 major cities in China have continuously declined over the past time. At the same time, the top 100 real estate companies all achieved only 30% of the set targets in the first half of 2022.
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