Robust home sales during holiday

Home sales in major cities didn't lose steam during the weeklong National Day holiday, which started on Oct 1, as homebuyers scrambled to sign contracts before they are priced out of the market.

Housing markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hainan remained bullish during the long holiday period, encouraging property developers and sellers to take a more aggressive stance than before.

In Beijing, homebuyers are now paying between 300,000 yuan ($49,000) and 800,000 yuan more to get pre-decorated apartments in newly released residential projects. Some developers in the capital city have started to charge a "decoration fee", averaging between 4,000 yuan and 9,000 yuan per square meter, Xinhuanet.com reported on Sunday. This means that homebuyers are spending more for down payments, and that the current cost of an apartment priced between 1.2 million yuan and 1.7 million yuan could now be 450,000 yuan higher than before the move.