Estate agents in China are trying everything to sell flats
You can place your deposit in bushels of wheat or strings of garlic
March 27th 2025
On the list of professions that are currently flourishing in China, estate agents do not come high up. Houses were once easy to sell, the surest investment available. But as a result of a four-year slump in the market, millions of homes now sit unsold. Some already paid-for properties are not even getting built. New home starts fell by almost 30% in the first two months of this year, compared with a year earlier. As of February, average new home prices had fallen for 21 months in a row.
Around a tenth of estate agents in the biggest Chinese cities have closed since 2021, according to industry estimates. The decline has been even sharper in small towns. Yanjiao, just outside Beijing, has seen hundreds shut, says one survivor. Another says his income has fallen by half in three years. So perhaps some of the wilder antics of those still trying to shift flats are understandable.
In recent months 31 men in the southern city of Huizhou bought flats at the request of their girlfriends, perhaps thinking that they had found “the one”. They then discovered that their girlfriends were estate agents trying to sell those apartments and were not interested in marriage. Authorities launched an investigation, telling local media that 15 women, all at the same firm, were behind the scheme and had used a dating app to find their targets. The incident is probably “just the tip of the iceberg”, warned a newspaper run by China’s housing ministry on March 24th.
Some estate agents are offering valuable inducements. Last year a firm in Zhejiang province said it would give out a 10-gram gold bar (worth around $1,000) for each house it sold. A Beijing-based company promised to throw in a holiday home in the seaside city of Yantai for anyone who paid for an apartment in the capital with cash. Other firms have offered everything from iPhones to stakes in a private-jet company.
Another tactic is to slash downpayments. A developer in the southern city of Zhongshan allowed a deposit of just 9.90 yuan ($1.30) for some flats. Developers in the agricultural province of Henan permitted farmers to put down wheat or other crops as a deposit. In 2022 Central China Group, one such developer, ended up with 430 tonnes of garlic after selling 30 apartments, according to local media reports.
Brokers are changing their pitch. Livestreaming is now a popular way to sell houses, with 500,000 agents on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Some sing, dance and do comedy sketches from unsold homes. In March, “U-bro”, a robot with a camera that shows houses and answers questions, began livestreaming in the city of Wuhan.
Government officials are trying to help by easing developers’ financing woes and encouraging people to trade in their old homes for new ones. But JPMorgan Chase, a bank, expects that in 2025 Chinese property developers will account for two-thirds of Asia’s defaults. Many analysts do not expect a recovery in the Chinese market until 2026.
If there is one group that can see a silver lining, it may be young men. The social pressure for them to own a home before women will consider them husband material is huge. But with prices in Beijing in late 2019 at 44 times average salaries, such a purchase has long proved out of reach for many. That ratio is now down to a mere 32 times. Some young men, if they can work out which of the women are not just estate agents in disguise, may be looking to snap up a bargain and pop the question. ■
You can place your deposit in bushels of wheat or strings of garlic
March 27th 2025
On the list of professions that are currently flourishing in China, estate agents do not come high up. Houses were once easy to sell, the surest investment available. But as a result of a four-year slump in the market, millions of homes now sit unsold. Some already paid-for properties are not even getting built. New home starts fell by almost 30% in the first two months of this year, compared with a year earlier. As of February, average new home prices had fallen for 21 months in a row.
Around a tenth of estate agents in the biggest Chinese cities have closed since 2021, according to industry estimates. The decline has been even sharper in small towns. Yanjiao, just outside Beijing, has seen hundreds shut, says one survivor. Another says his income has fallen by half in three years. So perhaps some of the wilder antics of those still trying to shift flats are understandable.
In recent months 31 men in the southern city of Huizhou bought flats at the request of their girlfriends, perhaps thinking that they had found “the one”. They then discovered that their girlfriends were estate agents trying to sell those apartments and were not interested in marriage. Authorities launched an investigation, telling local media that 15 women, all at the same firm, were behind the scheme and had used a dating app to find their targets. The incident is probably “just the tip of the iceberg”, warned a newspaper run by China’s housing ministry on March 24th.
Some estate agents are offering valuable inducements. Last year a firm in Zhejiang province said it would give out a 10-gram gold bar (worth around $1,000) for each house it sold. A Beijing-based company promised to throw in a holiday home in the seaside city of Yantai for anyone who paid for an apartment in the capital with cash. Other firms have offered everything from iPhones to stakes in a private-jet company.
Another tactic is to slash downpayments. A developer in the southern city of Zhongshan allowed a deposit of just 9.90 yuan ($1.30) for some flats. Developers in the agricultural province of Henan permitted farmers to put down wheat or other crops as a deposit. In 2022 Central China Group, one such developer, ended up with 430 tonnes of garlic after selling 30 apartments, according to local media reports.
Brokers are changing their pitch. Livestreaming is now a popular way to sell houses, with 500,000 agents on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Some sing, dance and do comedy sketches from unsold homes. In March, “U-bro”, a robot with a camera that shows houses and answers questions, began livestreaming in the city of Wuhan.
Government officials are trying to help by easing developers’ financing woes and encouraging people to trade in their old homes for new ones. But JPMorgan Chase, a bank, expects that in 2025 Chinese property developers will account for two-thirds of Asia’s defaults. Many analysts do not expect a recovery in the Chinese market until 2026.
If there is one group that can see a silver lining, it may be young men. The social pressure for them to own a home before women will consider them husband material is huge. But with prices in Beijing in late 2019 at 44 times average salaries, such a purchase has long proved out of reach for many. That ratio is now down to a mere 32 times. Some young men, if they can work out which of the women are not just estate agents in disguise, may be looking to snap up a bargain and pop the question. ■
