"Return Home" Failed: A Four Line Real Estate Project "Very Holiday"

After sending the salesmen home, Guo Wei still had no rest. He needs to monitor the network platform, and maintain close communication with government departments, and timely transmit relevant "epidemic prevention" requirements to the duty management colleagues on duty. Under the constant spread of the new coronavirus epidemic, Guo Wei should focus on "epidemic prevention", but he still tries to minimize the impact of the epidemic.

Guo Wei worked in a regional housing company. He is responsible for a large scale real estate project, which is located in Mudan District, Heze City, Shandong province. Over the past two years, Heze has launched large-scale shantytowns, which has also promoted the rapid development of the local real estate market. According to the China Index Research Institute, the average price of new residential samples in Heze in December 2019 was 5610 yuan / square meter, up 9.1% over the same period last year.

Under the jurisdiction of two districts and seven counties, Heze has a population of over 10 million, and its resident population is at 8 million 700 thousand level.

This feature also gives Heze some new characteristics of the property market. Guo Wei said that in recent years, home buying has constituted an important demand for the Heze property market. During the annual National Day holiday and the Spring Festival long holidays (one month before and after the Spring Festival), the number of migrant workers returning home increased significantly. In some local projects, about 20% of the transactions reached each year.

Therefore, every year before the Spring Festival holiday, Guo Wei will start marketing preheating measures to sell the house to the "home users".

But during the Spring Festival in 2020, everything was disrupted by an outbreak.

Emergency closing sales office

As the seat of the city, the Peony District, in addition to local buyers, has attracted property buyers from all districts and counties. It is the most active real estate transaction in Heze and the highest price area.

In response to this feature and the short decision time of returning home during the Spring Festival, Guo Wei formulated a targeted marketing strategy, that is, focusing on promoting quality resources such as education, health care and transportation in the city, while making some price concessions.

Beginning in December 2019, Guo Wei put all kinds of marketing ads in rhythm, and the initial feedback was relatively good. Coupled with the good condition of the former customers, Guo Wei felt that the property market of the Spring Festival could "look forward to it".

In December 31st, the Wuhan municipal government issued the first report on "viral pneumonia". Over the next few days, the notice continued to appear, and the number of infectious diseases began to increase. The Southern China seafood market suspected of viral infection was seized.

But Guo Wei had no time to pay attention to the news. He focused his energies on his work. At that time, telephone enquiries were more numerous, and some buyers also made appointments to see the room. Beginning in mid January 2020, with the Spring Festival approaching, the number of people returning home increased, and sales offices gradually became lively.

But at this point, the spread of the virus has begun to accelerate, and the relevant information is constantly updated. In January 21st, the first case of pneumonia suspected of new coronavirus infection in Shandong was confirmed. In January 25th, the first confirmed case of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus was found in Heze on the first day of the lunar new year.

Guo Wei felt a little bit bad. After the Spring Festival, he asked his colleagues to buy more than 84 disinfectant to increase the frequency of disinfection in the sales offices, offices, project sites and residential areas. At the same time, he urged the front-line salesmen to "ask a few more questions". If you encounter clients returning from Wuhan, please pay more attention.

Subsequently, the number of confirmed cases increased. In January 28th, a total of 5974 confirmed cases of new crown virus pneumonia were identified, and the number of infected persons exceeded SARS for the first time. In Heze, more than 600 kilometers away from Wuhan, 7 cases were confirmed. Information about the epidemic has been overwhelming. After the Spring Festival, there were few people in the streets, and the behaviors of "relatives and parties" were significantly reduced.

Guo Wei's sales office is so crowded that he can't get 5 in a day. Some of the house holders wear masks to keep distance from the sales staff. Guo Wei asked that security guards, salesmen and property service personnel all carry masks on duty. Some salesmen were allowed to go home for the new year because of the few houses.

In January 29th, the Shandong Provincial Department of housing and urban rural development issued an urgent notice to suspend sales activities of commercial housing, including sales activities of sales offices. On the second day, Guo Wei received the notice from the company headquarters, the local real estate association, the chamber of Commerce, the housing construction department, the street office, and so on, calling for the closure of the sales office and the suspension of sales activities.

In the afternoon of January 30th, Guo Wei gave all the front-line marketers a holiday. He arranged duty personnel in the property and customer service departments, and told them to follow the arrangements of the government departments under their jurisdiction and do epidemic prevention work well. On that day, the sales office closed.

Conservative mentality under epidemic situation

Due to the sudden incident, some transactions on the way were affected. A customer who has just paid a deposit can not complete the following procedures, such as net signing, loan, tax payment, and so on. The salesmen earnestly agreed that the other side agreed to continue the transaction and postpone the follow-up process according to the specific circumstances. There is also a homebuyer who insists on checking out and finally getting what he wants.

In Guo Wei's view, the uncertainty brought by the epidemic makes buyers' consumption and investment behavior conservative. "It is very understandable that buying a house at this time is better than buying masks, buying medicine and buying grain."

Real estate transactions rely heavily on offline communication. The closure of the sales offices has turned Guo Wei's "spring festival marketing" into a bubble. "Signed more than ten sheets before the Spring Festival, but no one after the holidays. Now, at least for a month, there will be no deal. "

But Guo Wei is still trying to make up for it. Previously, the company headquarters and some portals cooperation, during the epidemic, marketing behavior moved online. Guo Weirang colleagues improved project information and actively forwarded it. At the same time, some video materials previously made by the project are also being promoted in some network video platforms such as jitter and fast hand.

He felt that during the epidemic, people kept indoors and increased their time to brush their phones and watch television. At this time, some marketing campaigns can be done to save customers. After the epidemic is controlled, these jobs may be turned into achievements.

Due to various factors such as major festivals, college entrance examination, environmental protection and other factors, the real estate industry's downtime and stop selling are not uncommon. In many parts of the north, there are still one to two months' downtime every year due to seasonal influence.

Guo Wei regards the epidemic situation as the same as the force majeure. He feels that as long as the epidemic does not last too long, there will be room to make up for the losses. So far, the headquarters of the company has not yet adjusted the sales task, but according to his understanding, it is likely to be lowered because the situation in other cities is not good.

What he can do at present can only do his best to cooperate with the government departments in "epidemic prevention" so that the epidemic can be passed as quickly as possible.

With regard to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the property market, the SARS epidemic in 2003 is the only reference.

Yang Hongxu, vice president of Shanghai Yi Ju Real Estate Research Institute, pointed out that in the first half of 2003, influenced by SARS, the monetary policy appeared to be extra loose and became a good thing for the property market. In addition, at that time, the property market in China was in the early stage of marketization. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the market even showed signs of bias. In the first half of 2003, the area of real estate sales increased by 38% compared with the same period last year, and the annual growth rate was 29%.

Regarding the new crown epidemic, Yang Hongxu believes that because the national property market is in a cooling down period, the internal driving force is far weaker than that in 2003. Therefore, the negative impact of the epidemic on the property market may be more obvious.

(the respondents asked for Guo Wei's pseudonym).