Fewer residents plan on buying home, survey finds

Fewer Shanghai residents are willing to purchase a property in either the short or medium term, a survey released by the local arm of the National Bureau of Statistics found.

The survey, released today, also found fewer people expect housing prices to rise compared to a year ago.

Only 9.7 percent of respondents said they plan to buy a home within one year, down 9.2 percentage points from 2013, according to the survey of 559 people.

Over the medium term of three years, 27.6 percent of respondents said they are considering buying a property, a drop of 13.1 percent from 2013. Meanwhile, 25.4 percent of respondents said they have no plans to do buy property.

Meanwhile, 68 percent of respondents said they think housing prices will rise in the next one to two years, down 10.2 percentage points from 2013. And 13.9 percent of respondents said they believe home prices will drop, up 6.3 percent compared to a year ago.

Rising home prices in Shanghai have pushed more home seekers to the outlying part of the city, the survey showed. By proximity to the city center, 63.6 percent of respondents said they plan on buying properties beyond the Middle Ring Road, up 8.1 percentage points from 2013.