Real estate agents in Shanghai have joined forces to boycott property sales and rental website Fang.com over claims of unfair pricing.

Centaline Property, Century 21 China Real Estate and Shanghai Deovolente Realty are among 19 companies that yesterday issued a joint statement saying they were withdrawing information about their properties from the site.

They accused Fang.com of reneging on a promise to reduce its charges and eliminate duplicate pricing.

The website, previously known as Soufun.com, in June promised to cut the price of hosting a property on its terminal by 40 percent while at the same time canceling double charges for inclusion on its PC and smartphone sites.

The pledge to cut prices was made following a nationwide protest by property agencies, but Fang.com later withdrew the offer saying it would be raising its prices for inclusions on a new, high-specification version of its terminals.

“Real estate agencies are very price sensitive at the moment because of the reduced volume of transactions,” said Yang Hongxu, vice director at E-House China R&D Institute.

“At the same time, property websites have also been hit by the market slowdown and are looking for ways to maximize their profits,” he said.

“As more and more home sales are conducted online, the conflict between agencies and websites is likely to run and run,” Yang said.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)