Why is this real estate project near Wangjing still not selling well even after its housing price has dropped by 30%?

Around 2023, the Naixi area adjacent to Wangjing welcomed a new batch of new housing supply. At that time, four new properties including Zhongjian Chenyuan, Wangjing Yue, Wangjing Yunshang and Wangjing Guoyufu entered the market one after another, with the unit price generally exceeding 80,000 yuan per square meter, and some units even breaking 90,000 yuan per square meter. Naixi has also become the concentrated overflow area for the improved housing demand group from Wangjing.

But in 2026, the new property Yulinwan has changed the original positioning of improved housing in Naixi.

In the first quarter of this year, Yulinwan opened for sale, with an average pre-sale price of around 78,000 yuan per square meter, but the actual average online signing price was only about 65,400 yuan per square meter. After that, the online signing price continued to decline: the average online signing price in June was about 58,000 yuan per square meter, dropped to 52,000 yuan per square meter in July and August, and further fell to 50,000 yuan per square meter in September.

Up to now, the overall online signing price of Yulinwan has reached 53,000 yuan per square meter, less than 70% of the original record-filing price.

Online signing data (Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development)

01

 Sales rate less than 5%

The unit price of over 50,000 yuan per square meter of Yulinwan has formed an obvious price fault in the Naixi area. The early new properties in this area once exceeded 80,000 yuan per square meter, and even the second-hand new properties now are basically priced at over 70,000 yuan per square meter. According to data from Beike Zhaofang, the average listing price of Shoukai Jinmao Wangjing Yue is around 74,000 yuan per square meter; although some units of Zhongjian Chenyuan have dropped to around 70,000 yuan per square meter, the average listing price is as high as 89,000 yuan per square meter.

However, for Yulinwan with obvious price advantages, few home buyers are willing to pay for it in reality.

As of today, 6 months have passed since its opening, its online signing has just reached 76 units, with a sales rate of only 4.8%, which is so low that it can almost be ignored.

In terms of scale, Yulinwan is the largest community in the Naixi area. The whole project has a total of about 1563 units, divided into two zones: the South Zone has 12 high-rise buildings with 1487 units, and the house types are mainly 90-125 square meters; the West Zone follows a pure improved housing route, with only 3 garden houses and 76 units, and the main house types are large units over 200 square meters.

Facing such a huge scale, Yulinwan has long looked for a breakthrough to boost sales.

First, it upgraded the construction standards. For example, at the end of last year, it upgraded the facade to light-screen glass + aluminum plate, keeping pace with the current mainstream high-end projects.

Second, after entering the market this year, it began to play the "price reduction" card. In late May, Yulinwan launched more than 100 special-price units in two buildings, with the unit price as low as 42,000-48,000 yuan per square meter, covering an area of 90-125 square meters, and delivered as bare houses. In June, it launched 3 more buildings with large-sized special-price units, with an average unit price of about 50,000 yuan per square meter.

According to media reports at that time, as soon as the news of special prices came out, many people queued up to view the houses overnight. However, from the subsequent online signing data, successive price reductions did not achieve the ideal sales effect. According to the statistics of Jinglou, the average monthly sales volume of Yulinwan from June to August was about 10 units. Even up to today, only 26 units of Building 17 participating in the special-price promotion have been signed online, and only 12 units of Building 12.

02

 Obvious shortcomings

Next October, Yulinwan will be delivered. Logically speaking, the certainty brought by the quasi-completed property plus competitive prices should have brought it a certain degree of attention. But now, its popularity is still very limited.

The biggest problem may be the outdated product design.

Whether it is the house type, floor area ratio, or internal landscape design, Yulinwan has an obvious gap with the mainstream products in the current market.

Among the main 90㎡-125㎡ house types, most of Yulinwan's units only have two south-facing widths, which greatly reduces the lighting, ventilation and practicality. In contrast, most new properties in the current market, even 90㎡ units, generally adopt designs with three south-facing widths, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and separated dry and wet areas. In this case, Yulinwan is obviously backward in product strength.

House type map of Yulinwan

The floor area ratio is also a widely criticized point. At present, the mainstream projects in the market generally have a floor area ratio of over 90%, and some even exceed 100%. But for Yulinwan, the floor area ratio of the high-rise buildings in the South Zone is only 80% even including the free extra area, and the larger flat floors in the West Zone are no more than 88% even with the free extra area. Moreover, this is the level after its product optimization.

In addition, the mixed-living community layout is also a major fatal flaw. In addition to 1563 commercial housing units, Yulinwan also plans more than 3000 family residential buildings for government staff and talent apartments inside the community.

It is rumored that in order to avoid the impact of mixed living on the living quality of commercial housing, Yulinwan plans to implement zoned management through ground isolation, separate underground garages and separate property management. However, from past cases, this kind of isolation is very likely to cause disputes after delivery.

The traffic shortcoming further casts a shadow on its sales. Yulinwan, which targets the demand groups of rigid housing and primary improved housing, is a property far away from subway stations. The nearest Beiyuan Station or Qingheying Station is about 3 kilometers away, which makes commuting extremely inconvenient.

In addition, the living supporting facilities are slightly insufficient. Although schools and other facilities are planned, the choices are limited; there are a few ground-floor shops nearby, but shopping and entertainment still need to rely on the mature commercial complexes in areas such as Beiyuan and Lishuiqiao 3 kilometers away.

03

 Wrong timing

The current bleak sales of Yulinwan stems from the core problem of losing to the market cycle.

In 2017, Dongzhou Real Estate, under the Shounong Group, acquired the Naixi plot through a non-public bidding and listing process at a price of nearly 2.5 billion yuan, with a floor price of 28,000 yuan per square meter. According to the original plan, the project would start construction in 2019 and open for sale when the real estate market was still in the dividend period. As a result, construction was suspended for rectification due to a safety accident midway, and it did not resume work until 2023, and opened for sale in 2026.

It not only missed the best sales window, but more crucially, in the past ten years, the needs of home buyers, the concepts and standards of residential products have been iterated for many rounds. Yulinwan still retains the original product design from years ago, which naturally can hardly meet the requirements of today's home buyers.

Yulinwan under construction (Source: Xiaohongshu account of the project)

Of course, there are also reasons for the developer's own strength. Dongzhou Real Estate is backed by Shounong Group. Although it is a state-owned enterprise, it has an agricultural industry background. In the real estate industry, it has only developed affordable housing and resettlement housing projects such as Dongfang Ruiping Jiayuan and Dongzhou Jiayuan in the past, and has almost no relevant experience in product R&D and polishing for high-quality commercial housing. Therefore, the product of Yulinwan has no great advantage from the very beginning.

Yulinwan chose to enter the market in March this year, and the timing was also not good. Its main competitors are new properties such as Guoxianfu PARK and Xinghuan Shidai in Future Science City and Tiantongyuan areas. These two competing projects just opened for sale in the same month as Yulinwan. With better products, closer distance to the subway and better living supporting facilities, their attraction to customer groups in northern Chaoyang is far greater than Yulinwan. At present, the sales rate of both projects has exceeded 80%.

Under the current situation of continuous customer diversion from competing products and prominent product flaws, it is difficult for Yulinwan to achieve ideal sales results by relying on small price cuts. However, if its price is low enough to have no competitors inside and outside the area, the sales problem may no longer exist by then. Referring to the Xinchengtou Yuheyuan project in Fangshan Changyang, its online signing price is as low as 17,000 yuan per square meter, nearly half cheaper than the surrounding new properties, and it successfully won the monthly sales champion of Fangshan District in September with its fault-type price advantage.

However, under the premise that the cost of commercial housing has reached 28,000 yuan per square meter, how likely is it that Yulinwan will reduce the housing price to over 30,000 yuan per square meter?

This article is from the WeChat official account "Future Habitat", author: Future Habitat, 36Kr publishes this content with authorization.