China's real estate market just got big sales to boost at this week's Singles Day online shopping festival. Property developers throughout the country took advantage of the world's largest online shopping event by placing some of the hottest properties online with massive discounts to attract buyers.
During yesterday's Double 11 shopping event, thousands of properties were posted online, including foreclosed homes, pre-owned properties, apartments, and other real estates.
Alibaba Group's online auction platform, Ali Auction, reportedly had over 10,000 homes available, with most being sold at special discounts that were only available within the day. Some of the properties that were listed were located in highly-prized areas, such as those near school districts and metro stations.
Meanwhile, Alibaba's rival JD.com had more than 60,000 apartments available, listed by more than 200 developers from around 70 Chinese cities. The properties listed on the website reportedly had a combined discount of around $42.8 million and was only available during the one-day sale.
Almost all of China's major developers had joined in the festival, with big-name companies such as Evergrande putting up thousands of properties from more than 800 different projects.
According to industry experts, e-commerce has become a big source of sale for property developers in China. Most have found continually increasing sales through the innovative channel, attracting buyers from all over the country. The use of online platforms has also slightly managed to offset the country's sluggish market by combating downward pressures.
The same experts believe that property developers that can adapt to the technological change and the shifting consumer behavior will be able to survive as the market enters into a stabilized development stage. E-commerce is a big factor that most will likely have to adapt to given the various negative factors plaguing the industry. These factors include rising financing costs, tighter government restrictions, and tightening credit availability.
China's 142 listed property developers had reported a combined 1.5 trillion yuan in sales for the first three quarters of 2019. This was a 5.02 percent decrease when compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, overall net profits reached 144 billion yuan, which is 19.56 percent lower compared to the same period last year.
To combat the slower growth in revenues and net profits, property developers will likely have to find ways to improve their competitiveness. E-commerce platforms currently offer boundless retailing capabilities that developers will have to take advantage of. While there was significant growth in the number of properties that were made available online, it still paled in comparison to the scale of the country's overall property market.
