China's home sales rise during National Day holiday

Home sales are rising more or less across many Chinese cities during the National Day holiday period, following a series of property stimulus measures introduced since late September, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Saturday.

As of Friday, the fourth day of the week-long holiday period, more than 130 cities across over 20 provinces have held housing promotional activities, such as autumn sales, housing expos, and livestreaming house visits. Many housing projects involved in promotions saw the numbers of visitors rising by over 50 percent compared with the previous year.

In the first three days of the holiday, Beijing -- where the threshold for non-local buyers has been lowered -- reported a 92.5-percent increase in new home visits compared with the same period last year, with subscriptions doubling. Second-hand home visits also surged by 104.1 percent year on year.

A circular jointly issued by six municipal departments on Monday night announced that non-Beijing residents is now allowed to purchase homes within the city's fifth ring road if they have a record of paying social insurance or individual income tax in the city for at least three years, down from the previous requirement of five years. Outside the city's fifth ring road, the requirement is now at least two years, also down from five years.

Additionally, new regulations have eased financial pressures on homebuyers in the capital: the minimum down payment for individual commercial mortgages decreases from 20 percent to 15 percent for first-home purchases, and from 30 percent to 20 percent for second home.

In Guangzhou, another first-tier city, where restrictions on property purchases have been lifted, some properties for sale have a daily visitor volume exceeding 150 batches per day, a 200-percent increase from normal days. Almost all new houses available are promoted during the holiday to lure more buyers.

Starting Monday, home purchase qualifications in Guangzhou would no longer be reviewed, and there would be no restrictions on the number of homes that families and individuals -- whether local residents or not -- can buy.

"On the first day of the holiday, our visitor number and transaction volumes more than doubled, with over 200 groups visiting and 45 transactions made," said Li Wanying, a property consultant.

"The prices finally reached my expectations," said a homebuyer surnamed Cao.

Xiamen, a second-tier city in east China's Fujian Province, has also completely removed restrictions on home sales and reduced down-payment ratios since late September. During the holiday, there was a noticeable increase in customer traffic at sales offices.

China's home sales rise during National Day holiday

Heavy rains and flooding in Niger have forced schools to delay the start of the academic year by nearly a month, according to the Nigerien government.

During a council of ministers meeting, the government decided to postpone the school year to Oct 28 from the initially scheduled date of Oct 2.

So far, the devastation caused by severe flooding in many parts of the West African country is still visible in the capital Niamey. Few learning institutions were spared and even those that were left standing are being used to house those forced out of their homes by the deluge.

But many parents and teachers said the postponement of the new school year is no cause for alarm and warned that it is unwise to evict victims who have no other place to stay.

"After three months of vacation, the children will stay at home for another month or so. We don't usually leave children idle during the holidays. We take them to Quranic schools. So that's what we're going to do right now," said a parent.

The government said it is repairing the affected schools and stressed that all required steps must be taken before young learners can return to the classroom.

Flood-hit Niger delays schools reopening