Traditionally Golden Week is a time when Chinese consumers loosen their purse strings and go on shopping sprees. This is not limited to consumer electronics, clothes and travel, but also includes big ticket items like cars and apartments. But for the Shenzhen real estate market this Golden Week was a total bust. Only a paltry 82 units were sold during Golden Week this year. This does not bode well for Shenzhen developers considering there are an estimated 34,000 units on the market.

Shenzhen has been a leader in the real estate boom with apartment prices approaching RMB20,000 a square meter. It is hard to tell if slow sales during Golden Week were an anomaly or if it is a sign of a market at its top. Judging from the much-more-upbeat news coming out of the Beijing and Shanghai real estate markets, it would seem to be an isolated case. Let’s just hope that the Shenzhen market is not a leading indicator for China’s housing market.