(Yicai) April 2 -- Sales contracts for second-hand homes in China’s southern Shenzhen soared to a three-year high last month thanks to lower prices and the results of multiple favorable policies.

Some 5,196 second-hand house sales contracts were inked in Shenzhen in March, up 117 percent from February and 5.1 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics from the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association, The Paper reported today.

This was the first time since February 2021 that the figure exceeded 5,000, according to monitoring data from the Leyoujia Research Center.

The main reason for the rebound in the housing market in Shenzhen is that sellers voluntarily cut prices.

The percentage of second-hand homes sold at a price lower than their reference price was much higher in March than in February, according to field visits and member agency data from the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association.

Over 81 percent of the second-hand homes sold in Shenzhen last month were sold at a price lower than the reference price, statistics from the Leyoujia Research Center showed.

The sticker price of second-hand houses in Shenzhen was CNY70,600 (USD9,760) per square meter at the end of last month, down 1.1 percent from a month earlier and 8 percent from a year earlier, The Paper noted, citing statistics from an unknown agency.

However, many are worried that price cuts as the real estate market recovery’s driving force are not enough to last, the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association said.

Shenzhen’s housing market recovered also because of seasonal reasons following the Chinese New Year holiday, the relaxation of real estate policies, and lower interest rates for housing loans, said He Qianru, director of the Midland Realty National Research Center.

Editor: Futura Costaglione