2016 Beijing’s International Premier Real Estate Trade Show has kicked off on Thursday, showcasing over 500 real estate projects. Our reporter, Wang Hui, visited the event, and found out how real estate companies are handling the differing markets in major and small cities in China. 

Many people come to the International Premier Real Estate Trade Show to check out the market, but are feeling the pinch of Beijing's high property prices.

Despite this, real estate companies are still not short of buyers. A sales manager told me this property’s price rose by 20 percent, to 43-thousand per square meter, since last year.

Beijing is not an exception… housing prices in two other first-tier cities, Shenzhen and Shanghai, have also seen big surges since last year.

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, Shenzhen new-home price increase in February of nearly 57 percent was the biggest year-on-year rise from among 70 cities. Shanghai followed with a 21 percent increase.

But transactions plunged in these two cities in late March days after local governments rolled out new restrictions on buyers. 

While cooling down overheating housing prices in China’s first-tier cities, the government is trying to warm up the housing market in smaller cities, to reduce their high inventories of unsold properties.

Peng Lai in Shandong Province, with 450-thousand people, probably would rank as a fourth-or fifth-tier city in China. About eight local real estate companies came in a group to the trade show to attract more buyers.

Chen says people migrating to bigger cities poses a big challenge for local real estate companies. Many are lowering their prices to boost sales, but Chen hopes to attract buyers by improving the quality of the properties on offer.