China Property Investment Update:Toll-free highways taking a toll – Beijing and Tianjin tour takeaways

On our three-day visit to Beijing and Tianjin during the GoldenWeek holidays, we saw signs that primary market propertysales in both cities are softening. The main culprit seems to bethe “toll-free highways” allowed by the government over theholidays which precipitated a more-massive-than-usual exodusfrom population centers by people eager to reunite withrelatives. With everyone away, the majority of the salesmanagers we spoke with decided it would be best to defer newlaunches till later in October or even early November. Othertakeaways from our site visits and discussions with developersand property agents include the following.