Huainan

Similarly, prices are as much as 24% below their top in parts of Huainan, Rushan and Gejiu.

Real estate agents said low-cost apartments in smaller Chinese cities such as Huainan and Rushan in the east, and Gejiu in the southwest, are also being bought, largely by people living outside those locations.

In Huainan, “most of the buyers are not locals”, said Zhao, an agent who only gave his surname because he was not authorised to speak to media.

Huainan, a city in Anhui Province, ordered banks to extend more money and shorten loan approval times, as well as lower the mortgage rates and down payment requirements for first-time buyers.

That facility, which went online in 2017, floats atop an artificial lake created from a collapsed coal mine near the city of Huainan.